Extremely high-energy cosmic rays and the Auger observatory

May, 1996
13 pages
Published in:
  • Nucl.Phys.B Proc.Suppl. 48 (1996) 488-490
e-Print:
Experiments:

Citations per year

19961998200020022002145
Abstract: (arXiv)
Over the last 30 years or so, a handful of events observed in ground-based cosmic ray detectors seem to have opened a new window in the field of high-energy astrophysics. These events have energies exceeding 5x10**19 eV (the region of the so-called Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin spectral cutoff); they seem to come from no known astrophysical source; their chemical composition is mostly unknown; no conventional accelerating mechanism is considered as being able to explain their production and propagation to earth. Only a dedicated detector can bring in the high-quality and statistically significant data needed to solve this long-lasting puzzle: this is the aim of the Auger Observatory project around which a world-wide collaboration is being mobilized.
Note:
  • 14 pages, no figures, Latex, to be published in Proc. of the 7th Int. Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes (Venice 27/2-1/3 1996)
  • talk
  • cosmic radiation
  • proposed experiment