Educació en suport vital i ressuscitació 2021

L'impacte final de les guies per al suport vital depèn de la qualitat però també de l'ensenyament i l'aprenentatge que se'n faci, i del grau d'implantació. Pel que fa a la implantació, aquesta depèn dels recursos per portarles a la pràctica i de la seva difusió, però també de la factibilitat de l'aplicació de les recomanacions proposades. La interacció entre aquests tres aspectes, guies, formació i implementació, és el que es coneix com a fórmula de la supervivència d'Utstein. Aquest concepte ha rebut molta atenció els últims anys i ha motivat capítols específics en les guies 2021 del Consell Europeu de Ressuscitació (ERC)

Primers auxilis 2021

Els primers auxilis (PA) són l'atenció inicial prestada en cas de malaltia aguda o lesió que es presenta de manera sobtada, i que pot ser iniciada per qualsevol persona (proveïdor) en qualsevol situació incloent-hi l'autocura. Els objectius dels primers auxilis són preservar la vida, alleujar el patiment, prevenir noves malalties o lesions i promoure la recuperació. Les primeres guies del Consell Europeu de Ressuscitació (ERC) sobre PA van aparèixer l'any 2015, i el Comitè d'RCP de la Societat Catalana de Pediatria (CRCPSCP) les va difondre a través de Pediatria Catalana. En aquell article es donava també a conèixer la història del desenvolupament dels PA. El canvi que ha significat la introducció del concepte de suport vital ha comportat que els últims anys els PA siguin considerats un tema important també per als professionals sanitaris. En aquest sentit, les guies pediàtriques ERC 2021 ressalten la importància que té la identificació i el maneig precoç de l'infant críticament malalt o lesionat i el coneixement que en tinguin els proveïdors de PA. En aquest informe es presenten les recomanacions 2021 de l'ERC referents als PA, sobre la base de la revisió de l'ILCOR, amb vint temes relacionats amb emergències, mèdiques i traumàtique

Searches for Ultra-High-Energy Photons at the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory, being the largest air-shower experiment in the world, offers an unprecedented exposure to neutral particles at the highest energies. Since the start of data taking more than 18 years ago, various searches for ultra-high-energy (UHE, $E\gtrsim10^{17}\,\text{eV}$) photons have been performed: either for a diffuse flux of UHE photons, for point sources of UHE photons or for UHE photons associated with transient events like gravitational wave events. In the present paper, we summarize these searches and review the current results obtained using the wealth of data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Review article accepted for publication in Universe (special issue on ultra-high energy photons

Radio Measurements of the Depth of Air-Shower Maximum at the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA), part of the Pierre Auger Observatory, is currently the largest array of radio antenna stations deployed for the detection of cosmic rays, spanning an area of $17$ km$^2$ with 153 radio stations. It detects the radio emission of extensive air showers produced by cosmic rays in the $30-80$ MHz band. Here, we report the AERA measurements of the depth of the shower maximum ($X_\text{max}$), a probe for mass composition, at cosmic-ray energies between $10^{17.5}$ to $10^{18.8}$ eV, which show agreement with earlier measurements with the fluorescence technique at the Pierre Auger Observatory. We show advancements in the method for radio $X_\text{max}$ reconstruction by comparison to dedicated sets of CORSIKA/CoREAS air-shower simulations, including steps of reconstruction-bias identification and correction, which is of particular importance for irregular or sparse radio arrays. Using the largest set of radio air-shower measurements to date, we show the radio $X_\text{max}$ resolution as a function of energy, reaching a resolution better than $15$ g cm$^{-2}$ at the highest energies, demonstrating that radio $X_\text{max}$ measurements are competitive with the established high-precision fluorescence technique. In addition, we developed a procedure for performing an extensive data-driven study of systematic uncertainties, including the effects of acceptance bias, reconstruction bias, and the investigation of possible residual biases. These results have been cross-checked with air showers measured independently with both the radio and fluorescence techniques, a setup unique to the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Cosmological implications of photon-flux upper limits at ultra-high energies in scenarios of Planckian-interacting massive particles for dark matter

We present a thorough search for signatures that would be suggestive of super-heavy $X$ particles decaying in the Galactic halo, in the data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. From the lack of signal, we derive upper limits for different energy thresholds above ${\gtrsim}10^8$\,GeV on the expected secondary by-product fluxes from $X$-particle decay. Assuming that the energy density of these super-heavy particles matches that of dark matter observed today, we translate the upper bounds on the particle fluxes into tight constraints on the couplings governing the decay process as a function of the particle mass. We show that instanton-induced decay processes allow us to derive a bound on the reduced coupling constant of gauge interactions in the dark sector: \alpha_X \alt 0.09, for 10^{9} \alt M_X/\text{GeV} < 10^{19}. This upper limit on $\alpha_X$ is complementary to the non-observation of tensor modes in the cosmic microwave background in the context of Planckian-interacting massive particles for dark matter produced during the reheating epoch. Viable regions for this scenario to explain dark matter are delineated in several planes of the multidimensional parameter space that involves, in addition to $M_X$ and $\alpha_X$, the Hubble rate at the end of inflation, the reheating efficiency, and the non-minimal coupling of the Higgs with curvature.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, Accompanying paper of arXiv:2203.0885

A Catalog of the Highest-energy Cosmic Rays Recorded during Phase I of Operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory

A catalog containing details of the highest-energy cosmic rays recorded through the detection of extensive air-showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory is presented with the aim of opening the data to detailed examination. Descriptions of the 100 showers created by the highest-energy particles recorded between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2020 are given for cosmic rays that have energies in the range 78 EeV to 166 EeV. Details are also given of a further nine very-energetic events that have been used in the calibration procedure adopted to determine the energy of each primary. A sky plot of the arrival directions of the most energetic particles is shown. No interpretations of the data are offered

Ground observations of a space laser for the assessment of its in-orbit performance

The wind mission Aeolus of the European Space Agency was a groundbreaking achievement for Earth observation. Between 2018 and 2023, the space-borne lidar instrument ALADIN onboard the Aeolus satellite measured atmospheric wind profiles with global coverage which contributed to improving the accuracy of numerical weather prediction. The precision of the wind observations, however, declined over the course of the mission due to a progressive loss of the atmospheric backscatter signal. The analysis of the root cause was supported by the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina whose fluorescence detector registered the ultraviolet laser pulses emitted from the instrument in space, thereby offering an estimation of the laser energy at the exit of the instrument for several days in 2019, 2020 and 2021. The reconstruction of the laser beam not only allowed for an independent assessment of the Aeolus performance, but also helped to improve the accuracy in the determination of the laser beam's ground track on single pulse level. The results presented in this paper set a precedent for the monitoring of space lasers by ground-based telescopes and open new possibilities for the calibration of cosmic-ray observatories.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

Constraining Lorentz Invariance Violation using the muon content of extensive air showers measured at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Lorentz symmetry requires the space-time structure to be the same for all observers, but, on the other hand, various quantum gravity theories suggest that it may be violated when approaching the Planck scale. Even a small violation of Lorentz Invariance (LI) could easily affect the Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) propagation on a cosmological scale. Moreover, at the extreme energies, like those available in the collision of UHECRs with atmosphere, one should also expect a change in the interactions and, therefore, in the development of extensive air showers. For the first time, this effect has been studied using the muon content of air showers measured at the Pierre Auger Observatory. After having introduced Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) as a perturbation term in the single particle dispersion relation, a library of simulated showers with different energies, primary particles and LIV strengths has been produced. Leading to a change in the energy threshold of particle decays, the modification of the energy-momentum relation allows hadronic interactions of neutral pions that contribute to the growth of the hadronic cascade. As a consequence, an increase in the number of muons and a decrease in their intrinsic fluctuations are expected. Comparing the Monte Carlo expectations with the muon fluctuation measurements from the Pierre Auger Observatory, limits on LIV parameters have been derived and presented in this contribution