The absence of a well established point source of very high energy
(
≳
10
TeV
)
γ-rays in the sky, makes the measurement of the angular resolution and the absolute pointing accuracy of an extensive ...air shower (EAS) array a challenging task. In the past, several groups have utilized the reduction in the isotropic flux of cosmic rays due to the shadows of the Moon and the Sun, to measure the angular resolution and the absolute pointing accuracy of their arrays. The data collected from the GRAPES-3 EAS array, over the period of 4 years from 2000 to 2003, has been used to observe the shadow of the Moon at a level of
∼
5
σ
and that of the Sun at a lower level of significance. The high density of the detectors in GRAPES-3 enabled an angular resolution of 0.7° to be obtained at energies as low as 30
TeV. The angular resolution studies were further extended by using two other techniques, namely, the even–odd and the left–right methods. All three techniques have yielded nearly identical results on the energy dependent angular resolution.
The GRAPES-3 extensive air shower (EAS) array started operation with 256 scintillator detectors at Ooty in India. Each detector is viewed by a fast photomultiplier tube (PMT) mounted at a height of ...60
cm above the scintillator. However, for further expansion of the array, an alternative readout of the scintillator using wave-length shifting (WLS) fibers is employed. This resulted in improved performance with a larger photon signal and a more uniform response. With the inclusion of a second PMT, the dynamic range for particle detection has been increased to ∼5
×
10
3 particles m
−2. We now use plastic scintillators, developed in-house to cut costs. The measurement of the density spectrum, shows a power law dependence with an index
γ
=
1.57
±
0.04. Using the zenith angle dependence of the density spectrum, an attenuation length Λ
a
=
98–106
g
cm
−2 for the EAS is obtained. These measurements are found to be consistent with the results reported earlier by other groups.
The Telescope Array (TA) observatory utilizes fluorescence detectors and surface detectors (SDs) to observe air showers produced by ultra high energy cosmic rays in Earth's atmosphere. Cosmic-ray ...events observed in this way are termed hybrid data. The depth of air shower maximum is related to the mass of the primary particle that generates the shower. This paper reports on shower maxima data collected over 8.5 yr using the Black Rock Mesa and Long Ridge fluorescence detectors in conjunction with the array of SDs. We compare the means and standard deviations of the observed X max distributions with Monte Carlo X max distributions of unmixed protons, helium, nitrogen, and iron, all generated using the QGSJet II-04 hadronic model. We also perform an unbinned maximum likelihood test of the observed data, which is subjected to variable systematic shifting of the data X max distributions to allow us to test the full distributions, and compare them to the Monte Carlo to see which elements are not compatible with the observed data. For all energy bins, QGSJet II-04 protons are found to be compatible with TA hybrid data at the 95% confidence level after some systematic X max shifting of the data. Three other QGSJet II-04 elements are found to be compatible using the same test procedure in an energy range limited to the highest energies where data statistics are sparse.
We report on a measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum by the Telescope Array Low-Energy Extension (TALE) air fluorescence detector (FD). The TALE air FD is also sensitive to the Cherenkov ...light produced by shower particles. Low-energy cosmic rays, in the PeV energy range, are detectable by TALE as Cherenkov events. Using these events, we measure the energy spectrum from a low energy of ∼2 PeV to an energy greater than 100 PeV. Above 100 PeV, TALE can detect cosmic rays using air fluorescence. This allows for the extension of the measurement to energies greater than a few EeV. In this paper, we describe the detector, explain the technique, and present results from a measurement of the spectrum using ∼1000 hr of observation. The observed spectrum shows a clear steepening near 1017.1 eV, along with an ankle-like structure at 1016.2 eV. These features present important constraints on the origin of galactic cosmic rays and on propagation models. The feature at 1017.1 eV may also mark the end of the galactic cosmic ray flux and the start of the transition to extragalactic sources.
Abstract
We report on a measurement of the cosmic-ray composition by the Telescope Array Low-energy Extension (TALE) air fluorescence detector (FD). By making use of the Cherenkov light signal in ...addition to air fluorescence light from cosmic-ray (CR)-induced extensive air showers, the TALE FD can measure the properties of the cosmic rays with energies as low as ∼2 PeV and exceeding 1 EeV. In this paper, we present results on the measurement of
distributions of showers observed over this energy range. Data collected over a period of ∼4 yr were analyzed for this study. The resulting
distributions are compared to the Monte Carlo (MC) simulated data distributions for primary cosmic rays with varying composition and a four-component fit is performed. The comparison and fit are performed for energy bins, of width 0.1 or 0.2 in
, spanning the full range of the measured energies. We also examine the mean
value as a function of energy for cosmic rays with energies greater than 10
15.8
eV. Below 10
17.3
eV, the slope of the mean
as a function of energy (the elongation rate) for the data is significantly smaller than that of all elements in the models, indicating that the composition is becoming heavier with energy in this energy range. This is consistent with a rigidity-dependent cutoff of events from Galactic sources. Finally, an increase in the
elongation rate is observed at energies just above 10
17
eV, indicating another change in the cosmic-ray composition.
Since 2007, the Telescope Array (TA) experiment, based in Utah, USA, has been observing ultra high energy cosmic rays to understand their origins. The experiment includes a surface detector (SD) ...array and three fluorescence detector (FD) stations. The FD stations, installed surrounding the SD array, measure the air fluorescence light emitted from extensive air showers (EASs) for precise determination of their energies and species. The detectors employed at one of the three FD stations were relocated from the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment. At the other two stations, newly designed detectors were constructed for the TA experiment. An FD consists of a primary mirror and a camera equipped with photomultiplier tube pixels. To obtain the EAS parameters with high accuracy, understanding the FD optical characteristics is important. In this paper, we report the characteristics and installation of the new FDs and the performances of the FD components. The results of the monitored mirror reflectance during the observation time are also described in this report.
The Pierre Auger Collaboration (Auger) recently reported a correlation between the arrival directions of cosmic rays with energies above 39 EeV and the flux pattern of 23 nearby starburst galaxies ...(SBGs). In this Letter, we tested the same hypothesis using cosmic rays detected by the Telescope Array experiment (TA) in the 9 yr period from 2008 May to 2017 May. Unlike the Auger analysis, we did not optimize the parameter values but kept them fixed to the best-fit values found by Auger, namely 9.7% for the anisotropic fraction of cosmic rays assumed to originate from the SBGs in the list and 12 9 for the angular scale of the correlations. The energy threshold that we adopted is 43 EeV, corresponding to 39 EeV in Auger when taking into account the energy-scale difference between two experiments. We find that the TA data is compatible with isotropy to within 1.1 and with the Auger result to within 1.4 , meaning that it is not capable to discriminate between these two hypotheses.
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 1019 eV using 7 ...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, because the supergalactic plane is a fit to the average matter density of the local large-scale structure, 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 the TA (the Hotspot and Coldspot), and toy-model simulations of a supergalactic magnetic sheet. The seven year data posttrial significance of this supergalactic structure of multiplets appearing by chance, on an isotropic sky, is found by Monte Carlo simulation to be 4.2 . The 10 years of data posttrial significance is 4.1 . 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.
PDF
