Transverse Momentum Spectra in Au+Au and d+Au Collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200 GeV and the Pseudorapidity Dependence of High pT_T Suppression

We present spectra of charged hadrons from Au+Au and d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV measured with the BRAHMS experiment at RHIC. The spectra for different collision centralities are compared to spectra from ${\rm p}+\bar{{\rm p}}$ collisions at the same energy scaled by the number of binary collisions. The resulting ratios (nuclear modification factors) for central Au+Au collisions at $\eta=0$ and $\eta=2.2$ evidence a strong suppression in the high $p_{T}$ region ($>$2 GeV/c). In contrast, the d+Au nuclear modification factor (at $\eta=0$) exhibits an enhancement of the high $p_T$ yields. These measurements indicate a high energy loss of the high $p_T$ particles in the medium created in the central Au+Au collisions. The lack of suppression in d+Au collisions makes it unlikely that initial state effects can explain the suppression in the central Au+Au collisions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Evidence for a Mixed Mass Composition at the ‘ankle’ in the Cosmic-ray Spectrum

We report a first measurement for ultrahigh energy cosmic rays of the correlation between the depth of shower maximum and the signal in the water Cherenkov stations of air-showers registered simultaneously by the fluorescence and the surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Such a correlation measurement is a unique feature of a hybrid air-shower observatory with sensitivity to both the electromagnetic and muonic components. It allows an accurate determination of the spread of primary masses in the cosmic-ray flux. Up till now, constraints on the spread of primary masses have been dominated by systematic uncertainties. The present correlation measurement is not affected by systematics in the measurement of the depth of shower maximum or the signal in the water Cherenkov stations. The analysis relies on general characteristics of air showers and is thus robust also with respect to uncertainties in hadronic event generators. The observed correlation in the energy range around the ‘ankle’ at lg(E/eV) = 18.5–19.0 differs significantly from expectations for pure primary cosmic-ray compositions. A light composition made up of proton and helium only is equally inconsistent with observations. The data are explained well by a mixed composition including nuclei with mass A \u3e 4. Scenarios such as the proton dip model, with almost pure compositions, are thus disfavoredas the sole explanation of the ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray flux at Earth

Search for ultrarelativistic magnetic monopoles with the Pierre Auger observatory

We present a search for ultrarelativistic magnetic monopoles with the Pierre Auger observatory. Such particles, possibly a relic of phase transitions in the early Universe, would deposit a large amount of energy along their path through the atmosphere, comparable to that of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). The air-shower profile of a magnetic monopole can be effectively distinguished by the fluorescence detector from that of standard UHECRs. No candidate was found in the data collected between 2004 and 2012, with an expected background of less than 0.1 event from UHECRs. The corresponding 90% confidence level (C.L.) upper limits on the flux of ultrarelativistic magnetic monopoles range from 10−19(cm2  sr s)−1 for a Lorentz factor γ=109 to 2.5×10−21(cm2  sr s)−1 for γ=1012. These results—the first obtained with a UHECR detector—improve previously published limits by up to an order of magnitude.A. Aab … J.A. Bellido … S.G. Blaess … R.W. Clay … M.J. Cooper … B.R. Dawson … T.D. Grubb … T.A. Harrison … G.C. Hill … M. Malacari … P.H. Nguyen … S.J. Saffi … J. Sorokin … T. Sudholz, ... P. van Bodegom ... et al. (Pierre Auger Collaboration

Energy estimation of cosmic rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30–80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy—corrected for geometrical effects—is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.A. Aab … J.A. Bellido … S.G. Blaess … R.W. Clay … M.J. Cooper … B.R. Dawson … T.D. Grubb … T.A. Harrison … G.C. Hill … M. Malacari … P.H. Nguyen … S.J. Saffi … J. Sorokin … P. van Bodegom ... et al. (Pierre Auger Collaboration

Azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of the surface detector signals of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of signals in Auger surface detector stations is a source of information on shower development. The azimuthal asymmetry is due to a combination of the longitudinal evolution of the shower and geometrical effects related to the angles of incidence of the particles into the detectors. The magnitude of the effect depends upon the zenith angle and state of development of the shower and thus provides a novel observable, (sec θ) max sensitive to the mass composition of cosmic rays above 3 × 10¹⁸ eV. By comparing measurements with predictions from shower simulations, we find for both of our adopted models of hadronic physics (QGSJETII-04 and EPOS-LHC) an indication that the mean cosmic-ray mass increases slowly with energy, as has been inferred from other studies. However, the mass estimates are dependent on the shower model and on the range of distance from the shower core selected. Thus the method has uncovered further deficiencies in our understanding of shower modeling that must be resolved before the mass composition can be inferred from (sec θ) max.A. Aab ... S. G. Blaess ... R.W. Clay ... M. J. Cooper ... B. R. Dawson ... T. D. Grubb ... T. A. Harrison ... G. C. Hill ... M. Malacari ... P. H. Nguyen ... S. J. Saffi ... J. Sorokin ... T. Sudholz ... P. van Bodegom ... et. al. (Pierre Auger Collaboration

Improved limit to the diffuse flux of ultrahigh energy neutrinos from the Pierre Auger observatory

Neutrinos in the cosmic ray flux with energies near 1 EeV and above are detectable with the Surface Detector array (SD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory. We report here on searches through Auger data from 1 January 2004 until 20 June 2013. No neutrino candidates were found, yielding a limit to the diffuse flux of ultrahigh energy neutrinos that challenges the Waxman-Bahcall bound predictions. Neutrino identification is attempted using the broad time structure of the signals expected in the SD stations, and is efficiently done for neutrinos of all flavors interacting in the atmosphere at large zenith angles, as well as for “Earth-skimming” neutrino interactions in the case of tau neutrinos. In this paper the searches for downward-going neutrinos in the zenith angle bins 60°–75° and 75°–90° as well as for upward-going neutrinos, are combined to give a single limit. The 90% C.L. single-flavor limit to the diffuse flux of ultrahigh energy neutrinos with an E−2 spectrum in the energy range 1.0 × 1017 eV–2.5 × 1019 eV is E2ν dNν=dEν < 6.4 × 10−9 GeV cm−2 s−1 sr−1.A. Aab ... K. B. Barber ... J. A. Bellido ... S. G. Blaess ...R.W. Clay ... M. J. Cooper ... B. R. Dawson ... T. D. Grubb ... T. A. Harrison ... G. C. Hill ... P. H. Nguyen ... S. J. Saffi ... J. Sorokin ... P. van Bodegom ... et. al. (Pierre Auger Collaboration

Measurement of the radiation energy in the radio signal of extensive air showers as a universal sstimator of cosmic-ray energy

We measure the energy emitted by extensive air showers in the form of radio emission in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. Exploiting the accurate energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we obtain a radiation energy of 15.8±0.7(stat)±6.7(syst)  MeV for cosmic rays with an energy of 1 EeV arriving perpendicularly to a geomagnetic field of 0.24 G, scaling quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy. A comparison with predictions from state-of-the-art first-principles calculations shows agreement with our measurement. The radiation energy provides direct access to the calorimetric energy in the electromagnetic cascade of extensive air showers. Comparison with our result thus allows the direct calibration of any cosmic-ray radio detector against the well-established energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.A. Aab … S. G. Blaess … R.W. Clay … B. R. Dawson … T. D. Grubb … G. C. Hill … M. Malacari … S. J. Saffi … P. van Bodegom … et at. (for the Pierre Auger Collaboration

Testing hadronic interactions at ultrahigh energies with air showers measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory

Published 31 October 2016Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air showers probe particle physics at energies beyond the reach of accelerators. Here we introduce a new method to test hadronic interaction models without relying on the absolute energy calibration, and apply it to events with primary energy 6-16 EeV (E_{CM}=110-170  TeV), whose longitudinal development and lateral distribution were simultaneously measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The average hadronic shower is 1.33±0.16 (1.61±0.21) times larger than predicted using the leading LHC-tuned models EPOS-LHC (QGSJetII-04), with a corresponding excess of muons.A. Aab ... J. A. Bellido ... S. G. Blaess ... R.W. Clay ... M. J. Cooper ... B. R. Dawson ... T. D. Grubb ... T. A. Harrison ... G. C. Hill ... M. Malacari ... P. H. Nguyen ... S. J. Saffi ... J. Sorokin ... T. Sudholz ... P. van Bodegom ... et al. (Pierre Auger Collaboration