Properties and performance of the prototype instrument for the Pierre Auger Observatory

J. Abraham, M. Aglietta, I. C. Aguirre, M. Albrow, D. Allard, I. Allekotte, P. Allison, J. Alvarez Muñiz, M. G. Do Amaral, M. Ambrosio, L. Anchordoqui, R. Andrews, M. Anguiano, J. C. Dos Anjos, C. Aramo, S. Argiro, K. Arisaka, J. C. Arteaga, S. Atulugama, M. AveG. Avila, R. Baggio, X. Bai, A. F. Barbosa, H. M J Barbosa, D. Barnhill, S. L C Barroso, P. Bauleo, J. Beatty, T. Beau, K. H. Becker, J. A. Bellido, P. Bello, T. Bergmann, E. Berman, X. Bertou, P. Biermann, P. Billoir, R. Biral, H. Bluemer, M. Bohacova, E. Bollmann, C. Bonifazi, M. Boratav, A. Boselli, J. Brack, J. M. Brunet, H. Bui-Duc, V. Cabrera, D. V. Camin, J. N. Capdevielle, A. Carreño, N. Cartiglia, R. Caruso, L. A. De Carvalho, S. Casanova, E. Casimiro, A. Castellina, J. Castro, P. W. Cattaneo, L. Cazon, R. Cester, N. Chávez, D. Cheam, A. Chiavassa, J. A. Chinellato, M. Chiosso, A. Chou, J. Chye, A. Cillis, B. Civit, D. Claes, P. D J Clark, R. W. Clay, F. Cohen, A. Cordero, A. Cordier, E. Cormier, J. Cotzomi, U. Cotti, S. Coutu, C. E. Covault, A. Creusot, J. W. Cronin, M. Cuautle, S. Dagoret-Campagne, T. Dang-Quang, P. Da Silva, J. Darling, P. Darriulat, K. Daumiller, B. R. Dawson, L. De Bruijn, A. De Capoa, M. A L De Oliveira, V. De Souza, A. Della Selva, O. Deligny, J. C. Diaz, C. Dobrigkeit, J. C. D'Olivo, A. Dorofeev, M. T. Dova, A. Dye, M. A. Duvernois, R. Engel, L. N. Epele, P. Eschstruth, C. O. Escobar, A. Etchegoyen, P. Facal San Luis, A. C. Fauth, N. Fazzini, A. Fernández, A. M J Ferrero, B. Fick, A. Filevich, A. Filipčivč, R. Fonte, W. Fulgione, E. Gámez, B. Garcia, C. A. Garcia, H. Geenen, H. Gemmeke, C. Germain-Renaud, P. L. Ghia, K. Gibbs, M. Giller, J. Gitto, H. Glass, M. Gómez Berisso, P. F. Gomez Vitale, J. González, J. González, D. Gora, A. Goodwin, P. Gouffon, V. Grassi, A. F. Grillo, C. Grunfeld, J. Grygar, F. Guarino, G. Guedes, C. Guerard, R. Gumbsheimer, J. L. Harton, F. Hasenbalg, D. Heck, J. M. Hernández, D. Hoffer, C. Hojvat, P. Homola, M. Horvat, M. Hrabovsky, A. Insolia, S. Jaminion, Y. Jerónimo, L. Jiang, M. Kaducak, K. H. Kampert, B. Keilhauer, E. Kemp, H. Klages, M. Kleifges, J. Kleinfeller, J. Knapp, A. Kopmann, N. Kunka, M. Kutschera, C. Lachaud, M. Lapolla, A. Letessier-Selvon, I. Lhenry-Yvon, J. Lloyd-Evans, R. López, A. Lopez Aguera, M. Lucano, R. Luna, Y. Ma, M. E. Manceñido, P. F. Manfredi, L. Manhaes, P. Mantsch, A. G. Mariazzi, M. J. Markus, G. Martin, O. Martineau, J. Martinez, N. Martinez, O. Martínez, H. J. Mathes, J. A J Matthews, J. Matthews, G. Matthiae, E. Marques, P. Matussek, G. Maurin, D. Maurizio, P. Mazur, T. McCauley, M. McEwen, R. R. McNeil, C. Medina, M. C. Medina, G. Medina-Tanco, D. Melo, M. Melocchi, E. Menichetti, A. Menshikov, F. Meyer, R. Meyhandan, J. C. Meza, G. Miele, W. Miller, M. Mohammed, D. Monnier-Ragaigne, C. Morello, E. Moreno, M. Mostafa, R. Mussa, H. Nassini, G. Navarra, L. Nellen, F. Nerling, C. Newman-Holmes, D. Nicotra, S. Nigro, D. Nitz, H. Nogima, D. Nosek, M. Nuñez, T. Ohnuki, A. Olinto, S. Ostaptchenko, M. Palatka, G. Parente, E. Parizot, E. H. Pasaye, N. Pastrone, M. Patel, T. Paul, I. Pedraza, J. Pekala, R. Pelayo, I. M. Pepe, A. Pérez-Lorenzana, L. Perrone, N. Peshman, S. Petrera, P. Petrinca, D. Pham-Ngoc, P. Pham-Trung, T. Pierog, O. Pisanti, N. Playez, E. Ponce, T. A. Porter, L. Prado Junior, P. Privitera, M. Prouza, C. L. Pryke, J. B. Rafert, G. Raia, S. Ranchon, L. Ratti, D. Ravignani, V. Re, H. C. Reis, S. Reucroft, B. Revenue, M. Richten, J. Ridky, A. Risi, M. Risse, V. Rizi, M. D. Roberts, C. Robledo, G. Rodriguez, J. Rodriquez, J. Rodriquez Martino, S. Román, L. Rosa, M. Roth, A. C. Rovero, H. Salazar, G. Salina, F. Sanchez, M. Santander, L. G. Dos Santos, R. Sato, P. Schovanek, V. Scherini, S. J. Sciutto, G. Sequeiros-Haddad, R. C. Shellard, E. Shibuya, F. V. Siguas, W. Slater, N. Smetniansky-De Grande, K. Smith, G. R. Snow, P. Sommers, C. Song, H. Spinka, F. Suarez, T. Suomijärvi, D. Supanitsky, J. Swain, Z. Szadkowski, A. Tamashiro, G. J. Thornton, T. Thouw, R. Ticona, W. Tkaczyk, C. J. Todero Peixoto, A. Tripathi, G. Tristram, M. Trombley, D. Tscherniakhovski, P. Tuckey, V. Tunnicliffe, M. Urban, C. Uribe Estrada, J. F. Valdés, A. Vargas, C. Vargas, R. Vazquez, D. Veberič, A. Veiga, A. Velarde, F. Vernotte, V. Verzi, M. Videla, C. Vigorito, L. M. Villaseñor, M. Vlcek, L. Voyvodic, T. Vo-Van, T. Waldenmaier, P. Walker, D. Warner, A. A. Watson, Ch Wiebusch, G. Wieczorek, B. Wilczynska, H. Wilczynski, N. R. Wild, T. Yamamoto, E. Zas, D. Zavrtanik, M. Zavrtanik, A. Zepeda, C. Zhang, Q. Zhu

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733 Scopus citations

Abstract

Construction of the first stage of the Pierre Auger Observatory has begun. The aim of the Observatory is to collect unprecedented information about cosmic rays above 1018 eV. The first phase of the project, the construction and operation of a prototype system, known as the engineering array, has now been completed. It has allowed all of the sub-systems that will be used in the full instrument to be tested under field conditions. In this paper, the properties and performance of these sub-systems are described and their success illustrated with descriptions of some of the events recorded thus far.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)50-95
Number of pages46
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume523
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2004

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We are very grateful to the following agencies and organisations for financial support: Gobierno de Mendoza, Comisión Nacional de Energı́a Atómica y Municipalidad de Malargüe, Argentina; the Australian Research Council; Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico and Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; National Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic (projects LA134 and LN00A006); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et Physique des Particules (IN2P3/CNRS), Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers (INSU/CNRS) et Conseil Régional Ile de France, France; German Ministry for Education and Research and Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia, Mexico; the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research (grant numbers PBZ KBN 054/P03/2001, 2 PO3B 110 24 and 2 PO3D 011 24); Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia; MCyT (grant FPA 2001-3837) and Xunta de Galicia (grant PGIDIT02 PXIC 20611PN), Spain; Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, UK, the University of Chicago, the US Department of Energy the US National Science Foundation, USA, and UNESCO.

Keywords

  • Auger Observatory
  • Extensive air showers
  • Ultra high energy cosmic rays

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