Co-financiado por:
Nome
Physics with UHECRs at the Pierre Auger Observatory
Código
2024.06879.CERN
Entidade Beneficiária
LIP - Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas
Sumário do Projecto
Astroparticles, such as cosmic and gamma rays, offer unique insights into the fundamental properties of the Universe. Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are particularly valuable for probing particle physics beyond the capabilities of human-made accelerators. However, their detection presents challenges due to their scarcity and extreme energies. The Pierre Auger Observatory, the world's largest UHECR experiment, has made significant progress in recent years, including the measurement of cosmic ray flux suppression and the detection of anisotropic particle arrival directions. Moreover, the statistics gathered by the observatory displayed an UHECR energy spectrum full of features which lead to unexpected astrophysical scenarios.
Despite these achievements, challenges persist in understanding UHECR composition and behavior. Discrepancies between simulation models and observed data, particularly regarding the abundance of muons in extensive air showers (EAS), known as the EAS muon puzzle, highlight the need for further investigation. AugerPrime, an upgraded detector system capable of separately measuring the electromagnetic and muonic components of shower signals, aims to address these challenges. The upgrade has just been completed and the experiment is expected to run until 2035.
This project focuses on maximizing the potential of the Pierre Auger Observatory and refining our understanding of shower phenomena through five primary areas of focus. Firstly, novel methods will be developed in Air Shower Physics to assess the energy spectrum of shower particles and explore features of the EAS muon number distribution. Secondly, efforts will be made to enhance the detection capabilities for neutral UHE particles, such as photons and neutrinos, leveraging advancements in detector technologies while boosting the observatory multi-messenger capabilities. Thirdly, Calibration of the Auger Detectors will ensure accurate data collection and analysis, including the development of inter-calibration techniques for newly installed detectors using a Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) hodoscope built by the Portuguese group.
Additionally, the performance of low-flux RPCs aimed for outdoor conditions will be explored, paving the way for the next generation of cosmic ray detectors. Lastly, Outreach initiatives will promote awareness and interest in astroparticle physics, showcasing Portugal's contributions to the Pierre Auger Observatory.
The proposed project solidifies the involvement of the Portuguese group in the Pierre Auger Observatory, building upon its notable contributions to collaboration activities. With this proposal, the group seeks to reinforce its position as a foremost authority in Air Shower Phenomenology and Cosmic Ray Detector Development.
Ultimately, the successful realization of the outlined objective will lead to a more profound understanding of the complex hadronic interactions shaping shower development. Consequently, this will shed light on the nature and origins of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs).
Suporte sob
Reforçar a investigação, o desenvolvimento tecnológico e a inovação
Região de Intervenção
...
Financiamento
Custo total elegível
€ 110,300.00
Apoio financeiro da UE
Financiamento p/ LIP
€ 0.00
€ 110,300.00
Apoio financeiro público Nacional
€ 110.300
Datas
Aprovação
2024-11-06
Início
2024-01-01
Fim
2025-12-31
Publicações
| A Catalog of the Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays recorded during Phase I of Operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Global tuning of hadronic interaction models with accelerator-based and astroparticle data | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Ground observations of a space laser for the assessment of its in-orbit performance | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Measurement of the Depth of Maximum of Air-Shower Profiles with energies between 3 and 100 EeV using the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory and Deep Learning | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Measuring the muon content of inclined air showers using AERA and the water-Cherenkov detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory, | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Muon tomography with Resistive Plate Chambers for geological characterization | International Conference Proceedings | published |
| Outdoor MARTA RPCs performace update | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Outdoor systems performance and upgrade | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Probabilistic mapping between multiparticle production variables and the depth of maximum in proton-induced extensive air showers | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Proton-air interactions at ultra-high energies in muon-depleted air showers with different depths | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Search for a diffuse flux of photons with energies above tens of PeV at the Pierre Auger Observatory | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Sensitivity of hybrid particle detectors to the energy spectra of air shower components | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| Testing Hadronic-Model Predictions of Depth of Maximum of Air-Shower Profiles and Ground-Particle Signals using Hybrid Data of the Pierre Auger Observatory | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
| The Pierre Auger Observatory Open Data | Article in international journal (with direct contribution from team) | published |
Apresentações
| A Física e o Espaço: Estudar a Terra, o Sistema Solar e o Universo | Presentation in national conference |
| A method to search for transient sources of neutral particles: initial application to Auger-like datasets | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| A Universal Mapping Between Proton-Air Interaction Variables and Air Shower Observables: Depth of Shower Maximum and Muon Content | Oral presentation in international conference |
| Air shower physics and hadronic interaction models | Oral presentation in international conference |
| An Overview of My Career in Recent Years. Exploring the extreme energy Universe | Outreach seminar |
| As partículas mais energéticas do Universo | Outreach seminar |
| As partículas mais energéticas do Universo - Explorar o cosmos com o Observatório Pierre Auger | Outreach seminar |
| Assessing the energy spectra of air shower components with the Peter Mazur station | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Assessing the energy spectra of air shower components with the Peter Mazur station | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Assessment of the performance of the R&D MARTA station. | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Astroparticle Physics | Oral presentation in advanced training events |
| Astroparticle Physics | Oral presentation in advanced training events |
| Astroparticle Physics: Messengers from the Universe | Oral presentation in advanced training events |
| Astroparticle Physics: the exploration of the cosmic and energy frontiers | Outreach seminar |
| Astropartículas e as partículas mais energéticas do Universo | Outreach seminar |
| Astropartículas e as partículas mais energéticas do Universo | Outreach seminar |
| Astrophysical Neutrino Detection with the Pierre Auger Observatory | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Auger @ IMC2024 report and future plans | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Brief report on IMC2024 from all moderation centers | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Calibração omnidireccional-para-vertical de VEM/MIP usando a estação Gianni Navarra | Poster presentation in national or international meeting |
| Como vemos as partículas? | Outreach seminar |
| Como vemos as partículas? | Outreach seminar |
| Como vemos as partículas? | Outreach seminar |
| Como vemos as partículas? | Outreach seminar |
| Detector simulation | Oral presentation in advanced training events |
| Enhanced field-of-view neutrino detection at the Pierre Auger Observatory | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Exploring the extreme energy Universe | Seminar |
| Extracting the muon energy spectrum from the Muon Production Depth | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Extracting the muon energy spectrum from the Muon Production Depth | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Física de Astropartículas | Outreach seminar |
| Física de Astropartículas | Outreach seminar |
| Física de Astropartículas: Mensageiros do Universo | Outreach seminar |
| High-energy hadronic interaction models: insights from the Pierre Auger Observatory | Oral presentation in international conference |
| Hunting ultra-high energy photons with data from the Pierre Auger Observatory | Oral presentation in international conference |
| Innovative Approaches to Unravel the Shower Components' Energy Spectrum with a Single Hybrid Station | Oral presentation in international conference |
| Instrumentação em Física de Partículas I e II | Oral presentation in advanced training events |
| Mapping distributions of production variables of UHECR-air interactions onto the (Nmu, Xmax) space | Poster presentation in international conference |
| Mapping production variables of high-energy- hadronic interactions onto the Xmax-Nμ plane | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Measuring the energy spectrum of EAS secondary particles with MARTA | Oral presentation in national or international meeting |
| Mensageiros de um Universo extremo | Outreach seminar |
| Novel method to search for transient sources of neutral particles: performance assessment | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| O Modelo Padrão da Física de Partículas e o CERN | Outreach seminar |
| O Universo e a Física de Partículas | Outreach seminar |
| O Universo e a Física de Partículas | Outreach seminar |
| O Universo e a Física de Partículas | Outreach seminar |
| O Universo e a Física de Partículas | Outreach seminar |
| Opportunities and Future directions for Astroparticle Physics | Oral presentation in national or international meeting |
| Outdoor MARTA RPCs performance update | Oral presentation in international conference |
| Outreach activities of the Pierre Auger Observatory | Oral presentation in international conference |
| Overview of calibration task | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Overview of the Air Shower Physics task activities | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Overview of the SD/SSD/UMD calibration work | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Pierre Auger Observatory and SWGO: towards a consistent description of EAS | Seminar |
| Pierre Auger Observatory: physics, 3D event visualization and international outreach | Oral presentation in national or international meeting |
| Probing different regimes of UHE p-air interactions via the tail of the muon number distribution and Xmax | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Probing the Shape of the Average Universal Shower Profile with Radio Events | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Probing the Shape of the Average Universal Shower Profile with Radio Events | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Probing the Shape of the Average Universal Shower Profile with Radio Events | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Probing Ultra-High-Energy Hadronic Interactions Using the Earth's Magnetic Field | Student presentation in advanced training event |
| Proton-air interactions at ultra-high energies in muon-depleted air showers with different depths | Seminar |
| PtailT: a novel Gamma/Hadron Discriminator for UHE searches | Oral presentation in national or international meeting |
| Ptail^T: a new gamma-hadron discriminator for UHE searches | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| PTtail, Novel Gamma/Hadron Discriminator for UHE searches | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| PTtail, Novel Gamma/Hadron Discriminator for UHE searches | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| PTtail, Novel Gamma/Hadron Discriminator for UHE searches | Oral presentation in national or international meeting |
| Report from the Auger Representative at the IPPOG CB | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Report from the Auger Representative at the IPPOG CB | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Report from the Auger Representative at the IPPOG CB | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Report from the representative at IPPOG | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| SD/SSD overview of the measurements with the hodoscope | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Search for neutrons from Galactic sources with the Pierre Auger Observatory | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Status of the Air Shower Physics task | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Strategy to extract the energy spectrum of particle using the SSD-MARTA prototype station | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Strategy to extract the energy spectrum of particle using the SSD-MARTA prototype station | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Summary of the Air Shower Physics task activities | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| SWGO present and near future | Oral presentation in national or international meeting |
| The development of High Energy Physics in Portugal and the cooperation Portugal-Brasil | Oral presentation in national or international meeting |
| The Pierre Auger Observatory | Oral presentation in national or international meeting |
| The rise of machine learning in Astroparticle Physics Experiments | Outreach seminar |
| The road to understanding hadronic interactions at the highest energies | Oral presentation in international conference |
| Thoughts about the next years of the Pierre Auger Observatory | Oral presentation in national or international meeting |
| Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Rays with Pierre Auger Observatory | Student presentation in advanced training event |
| Update on the Λμ analysis with UMD | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Update on the Λμ analysis with UMD | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Update on the Λμ analysis with UMD-433 | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Update on the Λμ analysis with UMD-SD433 | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Update on the omni-directional to vertical MIP calibration | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
| Update on the shower secondary particles energy spectrum with MARTA+SSD | Oral presentation in collaboration meeting |
Teses
| Characterization of the energy spectrum of extensive air showers with the Pierre Auger Observatory data. | ||
| Energy spectrum reconstruction of air-shower components with a multi-hybrid detector station | ||
| Enhanced Searches with the Pierre Auger Observatory in the Era of Multi-messenger Astrophysics | ||
| Exploring the electromagnetic shower profile to enhance the Pierre Auger Observatory physics capabilities | ||
| Inferring hadronic interaction properties from the 2D distribution of muon content and depth of maximum of extensive air showers | ||
| Multi-messenger physics with the Pierre Auger Observatory and SWGO | ||
| Muon energy spectrum from the analysis of inclined shower footprint | ||
| Raios Cósmicos: desenvolvimento de módulos de divulgação através de design participativo |
Equipa
| Bernardo António Neto Gomes Baptista Tomé |
| José Carlos Fernandes Nogueira |
| Luís Alberto Vieira Lopes |
| Luís Filipe Pereira Franco Afonso |
| Luís Miguel Domingues Mendes |
| Maria Alexandra Lima Fernandes |
| Mário João Martins Pimenta |
| Miguel Alexandre Jesus da Silva Martins |
| Miguel António Freitas Ferreira |
| Mílton Correia de Freitas |
| Pedro Jorge dos Santos de Assis |
| Pedro Moraes Salgueiro Teixeira de Abreu |
| Pedro Valdez Machado de Jesus Costa |
| Raul Cambraia Lopes Sarmento Pereira |
| Ruben Maurício da Silva Conceição |