Relativistic Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov model for deformed nuclei

The relativistic Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov model for axially deformed nuclei (RHFBz) is introduced. The model is based on an effective Lagrangian with density-dependent meson-nucleon couplings in the particle-hole channel, and the central part of the Gogny force is used in the pairing channel. The RHFBz quasiparticle equations are solved by expansion in the basis of a deformed harmonic oscillator. Illustrative RHFBz calculations are performed for carbon, neon, and magnesium isotopes. The effect of explicitly including the pion field is investigated for binding energies, deformation parameters, and charge radii and has an impact on the nuclei’s shape

The effective force NL3 revisited

Covariant density functional theory based on the relativistic mean field (RMF) Lagrangian with the parameter set NL3 has been used in the last ten years with great success. Now we propose a modification of this parameter set, which improves the description of the ground state properties of many nuclei and simultaneously provides an excellent description of excited states with collective character in spherical as well as in deformed nuclei.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Approximative Analytic Study of Fermions in Magnetar's Crust; Ultra-relativistic Plane Waves, Heun and Mathieu Solutions and Beyond

Working with a magnetic field periodic along $Oz$ and decaying in time, we deal with the Dirac-type equation characterizing the fermions evolving in magnetar's crust. For ultra-relativistic particles, one can employ the perturbative approach, to compute the conserved current density components. If the magnetic field is frozen and the magnetar is treated as a stationary object, the fermion's wave function is expressed in terms of the Heun's Confluent functions. Finally, we are extending some previous investigations on the linearly independent fermionic modes solutions to the Mathieu's equation and we discuss the energy spectrum and the Mathieu Characteristic Exponent.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Science, 15 pages, No figure

Status and performance of the underground muon detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array (AMIGA) is an enhancement of the Pierre Auger Observatory, whose purpose is to lower the energy threshold of the observatory down to 1016.5 eV, and to measure the muonic content of air showers directly. These measurements will significantly contribute to the determination of primary particle masses in the range between the second knee and the ankle, to the study of hadronic interaction models with air showers, and, in turn, to the understanding of the muon puzzle. The underground muon detector of AMIGA is concomitant to two triangular grids of water-Cherenkov stations with spacings of 433 and 750 m; each grid position is equipped with a 30 m2 plastic scintillator buried at 2.3 m depth. After the engineering array completion in early 2018 and general improvements to the design, the production phase commenced. In this work, we report on the status of the underground muon detector, the progress of its deployment, and the performance achieved after two years of operation. The detector construction is foreseen to finish by mid-2022

Reconstruction of Events Recorded with the Water-Cherenkov and Scintillator Surface Detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory

With the knowledge and statistical power of over a decade and a half of measurements, the Auger Collaboration has developed, assessed, and refined robust methods for reconstructing the energies and arrival directions of the highest-energy cosmic rays from the signal and timing measurements of its surface detector array. Concurrently, the unearthing of an increasingly complex astrophysical scenario and tensions with hadronic interaction models have demanded the addition of primary mass as an observable measurable using the surface detector. Access to information on the mass hinges on the disentanglement of the electromagnetic and muonic components of extensive air showers. Consequently, an upgrade to the Observatory, AugerPrime, is being carried out by equipping existing water-Cherenkov stations with a 3.8 m2 Scintillator Surface Detector (SSD). The SSDs, with their high sensitivity to electrons and positrons, will provide samples of the lateral distribution of particles at the ground that complement those of the water-Cherenkov detectors, which are significantly more sensitive to muons. When used together, the two measurements enable extraction of the number of incident muons, which is a quantity that strongly correlates with primary mass. We describe the reconstruction methods being developed for application to measurements of the surface detector of the Observatory with a particular focus on the enhancement of these methods with data of the SSDs of AugerPrime. Results from the reconstruction of thousands of high-energy events already measured with deployed SSDs are also shown

A combined fit of energy spectrum, shower depth distribution and arrival directions to constrain astrophysical models of UHECR sources

The combined fit of the measured energy spectrum and distribution of depths of shower maximum of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is known to constrain the parameters of astrophysical scenarios with homogeneous source distributions. Further measurements show that the cosmic-ray arrival directions agree better with the directions and fluxes of catalogs of starburst galaxies and active galactic nuclei than with isotropy. Here, we present a novel combination of both analyses. For that, a three-dimensional universe model containing a nearby source population and a homogeneous background source distribution is built, and its parameters are adapted using a combined fit of the energy spectrum, depth of shower maximum distribution and energy-dependent arrival directions. The model takes into account a symmetric magnetic field blurring, source evolution and interactions during propagation. We use simulated data, which resemble measurements of the Pierre Auger Observatory, to evaluate the method’s sensitivity. With this, we are able to verify that the source parameters as well as the fraction of events from the nearby source population and the size of the magnetic field blurring are determined correctly, and that the data is described by the fitted model including the catalog sources with their respective fluxes and three-dimensional positions. We demonstrate that by combining all three measurements we reach the sensitivity necessary to discriminate between the catalogs of starburst galaxies and active galactic nuclei

Performance of the 433 m surface array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory, located in western Argentina, is the world’s largest cosmic-ray observatory. While it was originally built to study the cosmic-ray flux above 1018.5 eV, several enhancements have reduced this energy threshold. One such enhancement is a surface array composed of a triangular grid of 19 water-Cherenkov detectors separated by 433 m (SD-433) to explore the energies down to about 1016 eV. We are developing two research lines employing the SD-433. Firstly, we will measure the energy spectrum in a region where previous experiments have shown evidence of the second knee. Secondly, we will search for ultra-high energy photons to study PeV cosmic-ray sources residing in the Galactic center. In this work, we introduce the SD-433 and we show that it is fully efficient above 5×1016 eV for hadronic primaries with θ < 45°. Using seven years of data, we present the parametrization of the lateral distribution function of measured signals. Finally, we show that an angular resolution of 1.8° (0.5°) can be attained at the lowest (highest) primary energies. Our study lays the goundmark for measurements in the energy range above 1016 eV by utilizing the SD-433 and thus expanding the scientific output of the Auger surface detector