Direct measurement of the muonic content of extensive air showers between $$\mathbf { 2\times 10^{17}}$$ and $$\mathbf {2\times 10^{18}}~$$eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Direct measurement of the muonic content of extensive air showers between $$\mathbf { 2\times 10^{17}}$$ and $$\mathbf {2\times 10^{18}}~$$eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Published:2020-08 Issue:8 Volume:80 Page:
ISSN:1434-6044
Container-title:The European Physical Journal C
language:en
Short-container-title:Eur. Phys. J. C

Author:

Aab A.,Abreu P.,Aglietta M.,Albury J. M.,Allekotte I.,Almela A.,Alvarez Castillo J.,Alvarez-Muñiz J.,Anastasi G. A.,Anchordoqui L.,Andrada B.,Andringa S.,Aramo C.,Araújo Ferreira P. R.,Asorey H.,Assis P.,Avila G.,Badescu A. M.,Bakalova A.,Balaceanu A.,Barbato F.,Barreira Luz R. J.,Becker K. H.,Bellido J. A.,Berat C.,Bertaina M. E.,Bertou X.,Biermann P. L.,Bister T.,Biteau J.,Blanco A.,Blazek J.,Bleve C.,Boháčová M.,Boncioli D.,Bonifazi C.,Bonneau Arbeletche L.,Borodai N.,Botti A. M.,Brack J.,Bretz T.,Briechle F. L.,Buchholz P.,Bueno A.,Buitink S.,Buscemi M.,Caballero-Mora K. S.,Caccianiga L.,Calcagni L.,Cancio A.,Canfora F.,Caracas I.,Carceller J. M.,Caruso R.,Castellina A.,Catalani F.,Cataldi G.,Cazon L.,Cerda M.,Chinellato J. A.,Choi K.,Chudoba J.,Chytka L.,Clay R. W.,Cobos Cerutti A. C.,Colalillo R.,Coleman A.,Coluccia M. R.,Conceição R.,Condorelli A.,Consolati G.,Contreras F.,Convenga F.,Covault C. E.,Dasso S.,Daumiller K.,Dawson B. R.,Day J. A.,de Almeida R. M.,de Jesús J.,de Jong S. J.,De Mauro G.,de Mello Neto J. R. T.,De Mitri I.,de Oliveira J.,de Oliveira Franco D.,de Souza V.,Debatin J.,del Río M.,Deligny O.,Dhital N.,Di Matteo A.,Díaz Castro M. L.,Dobrigkeit C.,D’Olivo J. C.,Dorosti Q.,dos Anjos R. C.,Dova M. T.,Ebr J.,Engel R.,Epicoco I.,Erdmann M.,Escobar C. O.,Etchegoyen A.,Falcke H.,Farmer J.,Farrar G.,Fauth A. C.,Fazzini N.,Feldbusch F.,Fenu F.,Fick B.,Figueira J. M.,Filipčič A.,Freire M. M.,Fujii T.,Fuster A.,Galea C.,Galelli C.,García B.,Garcia Vegas A. L.,Gemmeke H.,Gesualdi F.,Gherghel-Lascu A.,Ghia P. L.,Giaccari U.,Giammarchi M.,Giller M.,Glombitza J.,Gobbi F.,Golup G.,Gómez Berisso M.,Gómez Vitale P. F.,Gongora J. P.,González N.,Goos I.,Góra D.,Gorgi A.,Gottowik M.,Grubb T. D.,Guarino F.,Guedes G. P.,Guido E.,Hahn S.,Halliday R.,Hampel M. R.,Hansen P.,Harari D.,Harvey V. M.,Haungs A.,Hebbeker T.,Heck D.,Hill G. C.,Hojvat C.,Hörandel J. R.,Horvath P.,Hrabovský M.,Huege T.,Hulsman J.,Insolia A.,Isar P. G.,Johnsen J. A.,Jurysek J.,Kääpä A.,Kampert K. H.,Keilhauer B.,Kemp J.,Klages H. O.,Kleifges M.,Kleinfeller J.,Köpke M.,Kukec Mezek G.,Lago B. L.,LaHurd D.,Lang R. G.,Leigui de Oliveira M. A.,Lenok V.,Letessier-Selvon A.,Lhenry-Yvon I.,Lo Presti D.,Lopes L.,López R.,López Casado A.,Lorek R.,Luce Q.,Lucero A.,Machado Payeras A.,Malacari M.,Mancarella G.,Mandat D.,Manning B. C.,Manshanden J.,Mantsch P.,Mariazzi A. G.,Mariş I. C.,Marsella G.,Martello D.,Martinez H.,Martínez Bravo O.,Mastrodicasa M.,Mathes H. J.,Matthews J.,Matthiae G.,Mayotte E.,Mazur P. O.,Medina-Tanco G.,Melo D.,Menshikov A.,Merenda K.-D.,Michal S.,Micheletti M. I.,Miramonti L.,Mockler D.,Mollerach S.,Montanet F.,Morello C.,Mostafá M.,Müller A. L.,Muller M. A.,Müller S.,Mussa R.,Muzio M.,Namasaka W. M.,Nellen L.,Niculescu-Oglinzanu M.,Niechciol M.,Nitz D.,Nosek D.,Novotny V.,Nožka L.,Nucita A,Núñez L. A.,Palatka M.,Pallotta J.,Panetta M. P.,Papenbreer P.,Parente G.,Parra A.,Pech M.,Pedreira F.,Pȩkala J.,Pelayo R.,Peña-Rodriguez J.,Perez Armand J.,Perlin M.,Perrone L.,Peters C.,Petrera S.,Pierog T.,Pimenta M.,Pirronello V.,Platino M.,Pont B.,Pothast M.,Privitera P.,Prouza M.,Puyleart A.,Querchfeld S.,Rautenberg J.,Ravignani D.,Reininghaus M.,Ridky J.,Riehn F.,Risse M.,Ristori P.,Rizi V.,Rodrigues de Carvalho W.,Rodriguez Rojo J.,Roncoroni M. J.,Roth M.,Roulet E.,Rovero A. C.,Ruehl P.,Saffi S. J.,Saftoiu A.,Salamida F.,Salazar H.,Salina G.,Sanabria Gomez J. D.,Sánchez F.^ORCID,Santos E. M.,Santos E.,Sarazin F.,Sarmento R.,Sarmiento-Cano C.,Sato R.,Savina P.,Schäfer C.,Scherini V.,Schieler H.,Schimassek M.,Schimp M.,Schlüter F.,Schmidt D.,Scholten O.,Schovánek P.,Schröder F. G.,Schröder S.,Sciutto S. J.,Scornavacche M.,Shellard R. C.,Sigl G.,Silli G.,Sima O.,Šmída R.,Sommers P.,Soriano J. F.,Souchard J.,Squartini R.,Stadelmaier M.,Stanca D.,Stanič S.,Stasielak J.,Stassi P.,Streich A.,Suárez-Durán M.,Sudholz T.,Suomijärvi T.,Supanitsky A. D.,Šupík J.,Szadkowski Z.,Taboada A.,Taborda O. A.,Tapia A.,Timmermans C.,Tobiska P.,Todero Peixoto C. J.,Tomé B.,Torralba Elipe G.,Travaini A.,Travnicek P.,Trimarelli C.,Trini M.,Tueros M.,Ulrich R.,Unger M.,Urban M.,Vaclavek L.,Valdés Galicia J. F.,Valiño I.,Valore L.,van Vliet A.,Varela E.,Vargas Cárdenas B.,Vásquez-Ramírez A.,Veberič D.,Ventura C.,Vergara Quispe I. D.,Verzi V.,Vicha J.,Villaseñor L.,Vink J.,Vorobiov S.,Wahlberg H.,Watson A. A.,Weber M.,Weindl A.,Wiencke L.,Wilczyński H.,Winchen T.,Wirtz M.,Wittkowski D.,Wundheiler B.,Yushkov A.,Zapparrata O.,Zas E.,Zavrtanik D.,Zavrtanik M.,Zehrer L.,Zepeda A.,Ziolkowski M.,Zuccarello F.,

Abstract

AbstractThe hybrid design of the Pierre Auger Observatory allows for the measurement of the properties of extensive air showers initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays with unprecedented precision. By using an array of prototype underground muon detectors, we have performed the first direct measurement, by the Auger Collaboration, of the muon content of air showers between

$$2\times 10^{17}$$

2×1017 and

$$2\times 10^{18}$$

2×1018 eV. We have studied the energy evolution of the attenuation-corrected muon density, and compared it to predictions from air shower simulations. The observed densities are found to be larger than those predicted by models. We quantify this discrepancy by combining the measurements from the muon detector with those from the Auger fluorescence detector at

$$10^{{17.5}}\, {\mathrm{eV}} $$

1017.5eV and

$$10^{{18}}\, {\mathrm{eV}} $$

1018eV. We find that, for the models to explain the data, an increase in the muon density of

$$38\%$$

38%

$$\pm 4\% (12\%)$$

±4%(12%)

$$\pm {}^{21\%}_{18\%}$$

±18%21% for EPOS-LHC, and of

$$50\% (53\%)$$

50%(53%)