Update on the correlation of the highest energy cosmic rays with nearby extragalactic matter

Data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory through 31 August 2007 showed evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min energy threshold, \nobreak{$6\times 10^{19}$eV}. The anisotropy was measured by the fraction of arrival directions that are less than $3.1^\circ$ from the position of an active galactic nucleus within 75 Mpc (using the V\'eron-Cetty and V\'eron $12^{\rm th}$ catalog). An updated measurement of this fraction is reported here using the arrival directions of cosmic rays recorded above the same energy threshold through 31 December 2009. The number of arrival directions has increased from 27 to 69, allowing a more precise measurement. The correlating fraction is $(38^{+7}_{-6})$, compared with $21$ expected for isotropic cosmic rays. This is down from the early estimate of $(69^{+11}_{-13})$. The enlarged set of arrival directions is examined also in relation to other populations of nearby extragalactic objects: galaxies in the 2 Microns All Sky Survey and active galactic nuclei detected in hard X-rays by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. A celestial region around the position of the radiogalaxy Cen A has the largest excess of arrival directions relative to isotropic expectations. The 2-point autocorrelation function is shown for the enlarged set of arrival directions and compared to the isotropic expectation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics on 31 August 201

The Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. It combines a surface array to measure secondary particles at ground level together with a fluorescence detector to measure the development of air showers in the atmosphere above the array. The fluorescence detector comprises 24 large telescopes specialized for measuring the nitrogen fluorescence caused by charged particles of cosmic ray air showers. In this paper we describe the components of the fluorescence detector including its optical system, the design of the camera, the electronics, and the systems for relative and absolute calibration. We also discuss the operation and the monitoring of the detector. Finally, we evaluate the detector performance and precision of shower reconstructions.Comment: 53 pages. Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section

Advanced functionality for radio analysis in the Offline software framework of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The advent of the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) necessitates the development of a powerful framework for the analysis of radio measurements of cosmic ray air showers. As AERA performs "radio-hybrid" measurements of air shower radio emission in coincidence with the surface particle detectors and fluorescence telescopes of the Pierre Auger Observatory, the radio analysis functionality had to be incorporated in the existing hybrid analysis solutions for fluoresence and surface detector data. This goal has been achieved in a natural way by extending the existing Auger Offline software framework with radio functionality. In this article, we lay out the design, highlights and features of the radio extension implemented in the Auger Offline framework. Its functionality has achieved a high degree of sophistication and offers advanced features such as vectorial reconstruction of the electric field, advanced signal processing algorithms, a transparent and efficient handling of FFTs, a very detailed simulation of detector effects, and the read-in of multiple data formats including data from various radio simulation codes. The source code of this radio functionality can be made available to interested parties on request.Comment: accepted for publication in NIM A, 13 pages, minor corrections to author list and references in v

Search for First Harmonic Modulation in the Right Ascension Distribution of Cosmic Rays Detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory

We present the results of searches for dipolar-type anisotropies in different energy ranges above $2.5\times 10^{17}$ eV with the surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory, reporting on both the phase and the amplitude measurements of the first harmonic modulation in the right-ascension distribution. Upper limits on the amplitudes are obtained, which provide the most stringent bounds at present, being below 2% at 99% $C.L.$ for EeV energies. We also compare our results to those of previous experiments as well as with some theoretical expectations.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figure

Light-Front Holography, Light-Front Wavefunctions, and Novel QCD Phenomena

Light-Front Holography, a remarkable feature of the AdS/CFT correspondence, maps amplitudes in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time. The model leads to an effective confining light-front QCD Hamiltonian and a single-variable light-front Schrodinger equation which determines the eigenspectrum and the light-front wavefunctions of hadrons for general spin and orbital angular momentum. The coordinate z in AdS space is identified with a Lorentz-invariant coordinate zeta which measures the separation of the constituents within a hadron at equal light-front time and determines the off-shell dynamics of the bound-state wavefunctions and the fall-off in the invariant mass of the constituents. The soft-wall holographic model, modified by a positive-sign dilaton metric, leads to a remarkable one-parameter description of nonperturbative hadron dynamics -- a semi-classical frame-independent first approximation to the spectra and light-front wavefunctions of meson and baryons. The model predicts a Regge spectrum of linear trajectories with the same slope in the leading orbital angular momentum L of hadrons and the radial quantum number n. The hadron eigensolutions projected on the free Fock basis provides the complete set of valence and non-valence light-front Fock state wavefunctions which describe the hadron's momentum and spin distributions needed to compute measures of hadron structure at the quark and gluon level. The effective confining potential also creates quark- antiquark pairs. The AdS/QCD model can be systematically improved by using its complete orthonormal solutions to diagonalize the full QCD light-front Hamiltonian or by applying the Lippmann-Schwinger method to systematically include the QCD interaction terms. A new perspective on quark and gluon condensates is also presented.Comment: Presented at LIGHTCONE 2011, 23 - 27 May, 2011, Dallas, T

Search for black holes and other new phenomena in high-multiplicity final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

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Search for new phenomena in final states with large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS using root s=13 TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are reported of a search for new phenomena, such as supersymmetric particle production, that could be observed in high-energy proton-proton collisions. Events with large numbers of jets, together with missing transverse momentum from unobserved particles, are selected. The data analysed were recorded by the ATLAS experiment during 2015 using the 13 TeV centre-of-mass proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb(-1). The search selected events with various jet multiplicities from >= 7 to >= 10 jets, and with various b-jet multiplicity requirements to enhance sensitivity. No excess above Standard Model expectations is observed. The results are interpreted within two supersymmetry models, where gluino masses up to 1400 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level, significantly extending previous limits. (C) 2016 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Funded by SCOAP(3)

Search for heavy long-lived charged R-hadrons with the ATLAS detector in 3.2 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s=13 TeV

A search for heavy long-lived charged R-hadrons is reported using a data sample corresponding to 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The search is based on observables related to large ionisation losses and slow propagation velocities, which are signatures of heavy charged particles travelling significantly slower than the speed of light. No significant deviations from the expected background are observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are provided on the production cross section of long-lived R-hadrons in the mass range from 600 GeV to 2000 GeV and gluino, bottom and top squark masses are excluded up to 1580 GeV, 805 GeV and 890 GeV, respectively

Search for supersymmetry in events with a photon, a lepton, and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

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