EAS age determination from the study of the lateral distribution of charged particles near the shower axis with the ARGO-YBJ experiment

Abstract

The ARGO-YBJ experiment, a full coverage extensive air shower (EAS) detector located at high altitude (4300 m a.s.l.) in Tibet, China, has smoothly taken data, with very high stability, since November 2007 to the beginning of 2013. The array consisted of a carpet of about 7000 m${}^2$ Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) operated in streamer mode and equipped with both digital and analog readout, providing the measurement of particle densities up to few particles per cm${}^2$. The unique detector features (full coverage, readout granularity, wide dynamic range, etc) and location (very high altitude) allowed a detailed study of the lateral density profile of charged particles at ground very close to the shower axis and its description by a proper lateral distribution function (LDF). In particular, the information collected in the first 10 m from the shower axis have been shown to provide a very effective tool for the determination of the shower development stage ("age") in the energy range 50 TeV - 10 PeV. The sensitivity of the age parameter to the mass composition of primary Cosmic Rays is also discussed.

References in corpus (6)

• Identification of the TeV Gamma-ray Source ARGO J2031+4157 with the Cygnus Cocoon
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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Study of longitudinal development of air showers in the knee energy range
• On the efficiency of the evaluation of the primary cosmic ray composition using lateral distributions of air shower electromagnetic component