We present the first observation by the Telescope Array Surface Detector (TASD) of the effect of thunderstorms on the development of cosmic ray single count rate intensity over a 700 km\(^{2}\) area. ...Observations of variations in the secondary low-energy cosmic ray counting rate, using the TASD, allow us to study the electric field inside thunderstorms, on a large scale, as it progresses on top of the 700 km\(^{2}\) detector, without dealing with the limitation of narrow exposure in time and space using balloons and aircraft detectors. In this work, variations in the cosmic ray intensity (single count rate) using the TASD, were studied and found to be on average at the \(\sim(0.5-1)\%\) and up to 2\% level. These observations were found to be both in excess and in deficit. They were also found to be correlated with lightning in addition to thunderstorms. These variations lasted for tens of minutes; their footprint on the ground ranged from 6 to 24 km in diameter and moved in the same direction as the thunderstorm. With the use of simple electric field models inside the cloud and between cloud to ground, the observed variations in the cosmic ray single count rate were recreated using CORSIKA simulations. Depending on the electric field model used and the direction of the electric field in that model, the electric field magnitude that reproduces the observed low-energy cosmic ray single count rate variations was found to be approximately between 0.2-0.4 GV. This in turn allows us to get a reasonable insight on the electric field and its effect on cosmic ray air showers inside thunderstorms.
Telescope Array (TA) is the largest experiment in the Northern Hemisphere studying ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. TA measurements of the cosmic ray spectrum using the surface detector have the best ...statistical power in the experiment, and observe the ankle of the spectrum and the high energy cutoff. When the data are divided into two declination bands, above and below 24.8 degrees, the cutoff appears at \(10^{19.64 \pm 0.04}\) (\(10^{19.84 \pm 0.02}\)) eV in the lower (higher) band, an energy difference of 58\%. The global significance of the difference is 4.3 standard deviations. The lack of an instrumental cause of this difference implies it is astrophysical in nature.
The Telescope Array Collaboration has observed an excess of events with \(E \ge 10^{19.4} ~{\rm eV}\) in the data which is centered at (RA, dec) = (\(19^\circ\), \(35^\circ\)). This is near the ...center of the Perseus-Pisces supercluster (PPSC). The PPSC is about \(70 ~{\rm Mpc}\) distant and is the closest supercluster in the Northern Hemisphere (other than the Virgo supercluster of which we are a part). A Li-Ma oversampling analysis with \(20^\circ\)-radius circles indicates an excess in the arrival direction of events with a local significance of about 4 standard deviations. The probability of having such excess close to the PPSC by chance is estimated to be 3.5 standard deviations. This result indicates that a cosmic ray source likely exists in that supercluster.
Telescope Array (TA) is the largest ultrahigh energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) observatory in the Northern Hemisphere. It explores the origin of UHECRs by measuring their energy spectrum, arrival-direction ...distribution, and mass composition using a surface detector (SD) array covering approximately 700 km\(^2\) and fluorescence detector (FD) stations. TA has found evidence for a cluster of cosmic rays with energies greater than 57 EeV. In order to confirm this evidence with more data, it is necessary to increase the data collection rate.We have begun building an expansion of TA that we call TAx4. In this paper, we explain the motivation, design, technical features, and expected performance of the TAx4 SD. We also present TAx4's current status and examples of the data that have already been collected.
In this paper we report the first close, high-resolution observations of downward-directed terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) detected by the large-area Telescope Array cosmic ray observatory, ...obtained in conjunction with broadband VHF interferometer and fast electric field change measurements of the parent discharge. The results show that the TGFs occur during strong initial breakdown pulses (IBPs) in the first few milliseconds of negative cloud-to-ground and low-altitude intracloud flashes, and that the IBPs are produced by a newly-identified streamer-based discharge process called fast negative breakdown. The observations indicate the relativistic runaway electron avalanches (RREAs) responsible for producing the TGFs are initiated by embedded spark-like transient conducting events (TCEs) within the fast streamer system, and potentially also by individual fast streamers themselves. The TCEs are inferred to be the cause of impulsive sub-pulses that are characteristic features of classic IBP sferics. Additional development of the avalanches would be facilitated by the enhanced electric field ahead of the advancing front of the fast negative breakdown. In addition to showing the nature of IBPs and their enigmatic sub-pulses, the observations also provide a possible explanation for the unsolved question of how the streamer to leader transition occurs during the initial negative breakdown, namely as a result of strong currents flowing in the final stage of successive IBPs, extending backward through both the IBP itself and the negative streamer breakdown preceding the IBP.
Motivated by the detection of a significant dipole structure in the arrival directions of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays above 8 EeV reported by the Pierre Auger Observatory (Auger), we search for a ...large-scale anisotropy using data collected with the surface detector array of the Telescope Array Experiment (TA). With 11 years of TA data, a dipole structure in a projection of the right ascension is fitted with an amplitude of 3.3+- 1.9% and a phase of 131 +- 33 degrees. The corresponding 99% confidence-level upper limit on the amplitude is 7.3%. At the current level of statistics, the fitted result is compatible with both an isotropic distribution and the dipole structure reported by Auger.
We report an estimation of the injected mass composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) at energies higher than 10 EeV. The composition is inferred from an energy-dependent sky ...distribution of UHECR events observed by the Telescope Array surface detector by comparing it to the Large Scale Structure of the local Universe. In the case of negligible extra-galactic magnetic fields the results are consistent with a relatively heavy injected composition at E ~ 10 EeV that becomes lighter up to E ~ 100 EeV, while the composition at E > 100 EeV is very heavy. The latter is true even in the presence of highest experimentally allowed extra-galactic magnetic fields, while the composition at lower energies can be light if a strong EGMF is present. The effect of the uncertainty in the galactic magnetic field on these results is subdominant.
Evidence for a large-scale supergalactic cosmic ray multiplet (arrival directions correlated with energy) structure is reported for ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) energies above 10\(^{19}\) eV ...using seven years of data from the Telescope Array (TA) surface detector and updated to 10 years. Previous energy-position correlation studies have made assumptions regarding magnetic field shapes and strength, and UHECR composition. Here the assumption tested is that, since the supergalactic plane is a fit to the average matter density of the local Large Scale Structure (LSS), UHECR sources and intervening extragalactic magnetic fields are correlated with this plane. This supergalactic deflection hypothesis is tested by the entire field-of-view (FOV) behavior of the strength of intermediate-scale energy-angle correlations. These multiplets are measured in spherical cap section bins (wedges) of the FOV to account for coherent and random magnetic fields. The structure found is consistent with supergalactic deflection, the previously published energy spectrum anisotropy results of TA (the hotspot and coldspot), and toy-model simulations of a supergalactic magnetic sheet. The seven year data post-trial significance of this supergalactic structure of multiplets appearing by chance, on an isotropic sky, is found by Monte Carlo simulation to be 4.2\(\sigma\). The ten years of data post-trial significance is 4.1\(\sigma\). Furthermore, the starburst galaxy M82 is shown to be a possible source of the TA Hotspot, and an estimate of the supergalactic magnetic field using UHECR measurements is presented.
Ultra high energy cosmic rays provide the highest known energy source in the universe to measure proton cross sections. Though conditions for collecting such data are less controlled than an ...accelerator environment, current generation cosmic ray observatories have large enough exposures to collect significant statistics for a reliable measurement for energies above what can be attained in the lab. Cosmic ray measurements of cross section use atmospheric calorimetry to measure depth of air shower maximum (\(X_{\mathrm{max}}\)), which is related to the primary particle's energy and mass. The tail of the \(X_{\mathrm{max}}\) distribution is assumed to be dominated by showers generated by protons, allowing measurement of the inelastic proton-air cross section. In this work the proton-air inelastic cross section measurement, \(\sigma^{\mathrm{inel}}_{\mathrm{p-air}}\), using data observed by Telescope Array's Black Rock Mesa and Long Ridge fluorescence detectors and surface detector array in hybrid mode is presented. \(\sigma^{\mathrm{inel}}_{\mathrm{p-air}}\) is observed to be \(520.1 \pm 35.8\)Stat. \(^{+25.0}_{-40}\)Sys.~mb at \(\sqrt{s} = 73\) TeV. The total proton-proton cross section is subsequently inferred from Glauber formalism and is found to be \(\sigma^{\mathrm{tot}}_{\mathrm{pp}} = 139.4 ^{+23.4}_{-21.3}\) Stat.\( ^{+15.0}_{-24.0}\)Sys.~mb.
We present an upper limit on the flux of ultra-high-energy down-going neutrinos for \(E > 10^{18}\ \mbox{eV}\) derived with the nine years of data collected by the Telescope Array surface detector ...(05-11-2008 -- 05-10-2017). The method is based on the multivariate analysis technique, so-called Boosted Decision Trees (BDT). Proton-neutrino classifier is built upon 16 observables related to both the properties of the shower front and the lateral distribution function.
