https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20135304007
Measurements of the longitudinal shower development with the Pierre Auger Observatory
1 Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Física de São Carlos, SP, Brazil
2 Pierre Auger Observatory, Av. San Martín Norte 304, ( 5613 ) Malargüe, Argentina
In this work we explain how the Pierre Auger Observatory measures and reconstructs the longitudinal development of air showers. The measurement of the energy deposit in the atmosphere by the detection of the emitted fluorescence light is going to be briefly reviewed and the reconstruction procedure is going to be explained in detail. The two main outputs of this analysis are: a) the depth at which the shower reaches its maximum (Xmax) and b) the shower energy. In this work we concentrate on the analysis techniques developed with the aim to evaluate the unbiased Xmax distributions. We show how using measured events it is possible to estimate the range of the true Xmax distribution. Then we select events with geometries that allow an unbiased measurement of Xmax anywhere along its estimated range. The analysis procedure explained here is a fundamental step in the measurements of cosmic ray mass composition and proton-air cross section.
For the full authorlist see Appendix “Collaborations” in this volume. http://www.auger.org/archive/authors_2012_06.html
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2013
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
