Muon Counting using Silicon Photomultipliers in the AMIGA detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

Abstract

AMIGA (Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array) is an upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory designed to extend its energy range of detection and to directly measure the muon content of the cosmic ray primary particle showers. The array will be formed by an infill of surface water-Cherenkov detectors associated with buried scintillation counters employed for muon counting. Each counter is composed of three scintillation modules, with a 10 m${}^2$ detection area per module. In this paper, a new generation of detectors, replacing the current multi-pixel photomultiplier tube (PMT) with silicon photo sensors (aka. SiPMs), is proposed. The selection of the new device and its front-end electronics is explained. A method to calibrate the counting system that ensures the performance of the detector is detailed. This method has the advantage of being able to be carried out in a remote place such as the one where the detectors are deployed. High efficiency results, i.e. 98 % efficiency for the highest tested overvoltage, combined with a low probability of accidental counting ($\sim$2 %), show a promising performance for this new system.

24 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Prototype muon detectors for the AMIGA component of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Study of the breakdown voltage of SiPMs
• Underground Muon Counters as a Tool for Composition Analyses
• A new method for reconstructing the muon lateral distribution with an array of segmented counters

Cited by in corpus (11)

• AugerPrime: the Pierre Auger Observatory Upgrade
• Data-driven estimation of the invisible energy of cosmic ray showers with the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Multi-Messenger Physics with the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Design, upgrade and characterization of the silicon photomultiplier front-end for the AMIGA detector at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Design and construction of MuTe: a hybrid Muon Telescope to study Colombian Volcanoes
• Calibration of the underground muon detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Design and implementation of the AMIGA embedded system for data acquisition
• AugerPrime -- The upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Search for a diffuse flux of photons with energies above tens of PeV at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Development of a multi-channel power supply for silicon photo-multipliers used with inorganic scintillators
• Development and validation of the signal simulation for the underground muon detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory