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Tuesday, 14 September 2010, 14:00 in P8445B
Prof. Stephane Coutu (PennState)
Highest energy physics with the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Earth is continually bombarded by particles from the cosmos, the so-called cosmic rays discovered almost exactly 100 years ago by Viktor Hess. Some of these are heralds of the most energetic processes in the Universe since the Big Bang. Because they can be excruciatingly rare, on the order of one particle per sq. km per century, extraordinary efforts are required to detect these messengers with good statistical accuracy. The Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina is the largest instrument in the world to detect the air showers generated when these particles strike the Earth's atmosphere. Covering an area of 3000 sq. km, utilizing a hybrid combination of surface detector stations and nitrogen fluorescence telescopes, and in operation since 2004, Auger now dominates the world's sample of cosmic particles at energies beyond 10^18 eV, orders of magnitude beyond the reach of the most powerful accelerator laboratories either in existence or conceivable in the future. From the Auger measurements, crucial information and new puzzles emerge on the sources of these particles, their propagation to us over cosmological distances, and their atmospheric interactions in a realm beyond accelerator studies. The Auger results will be presented and the state of the field will be reviewed, as will ongoing and future developments.
Seminars in 2010:
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Modified by Andrei Frolov <frolov@sfu.ca> on 2023-11-01