Time asymmetries in extensive air showers: a novel method to identify UHECR species

Abstract

Azimuthal asymmetries in signals of non vertical showers have been observed in ground arrays of water Cherenkov detectors, like Haverah Park and the Pierre Auger Observatory. The asymmetry in time distributions of arriving particles offers a new possibility for the determination of the mass composition. The dependence of this asymmetry on atmospheric depth shows a clear maximum at a position that is correlated with the primary species. In this work a novel method to determine mass composition based on these features of the ground signals is presented and a Monte Carlo study of its sensitivity is carried out.

arXiv commentReceived at Editorial Office: 5 Dec 2008. Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics: 3 Mar 2009

References in corpus (4)

• The Offline Software Framework of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Hybrid simulations of extensive air showers
• Air Shower Simulations with the AIRES System
• Hinting at primary composition using asymmetries in time distributions

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Measurements of the Cosmic Ray Composition with Air Shower Experiments
• A new composition-sensitive parameter for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
• Azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of the surface detector signals of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• The Lateral Trigger Probability function for the Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray Showers detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Studying the nuclear mass composition of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with the Pierre Auger Observatory