Characteristics of geomagnetic cascading of ultra-high energy photons at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory
Cosmic-ray photons above 10^19 eV can convert in the geomagnetic field and initiate a preshower, i.e. a particle cascade before entering the atmosphere. We compare the preshower characteristics at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory. In addition to a shift of the preshowe...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0608101 2023-05-15T16:19:39+02:00 Characteristics of geomagnetic cascading of ultra-high energy photons at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory Homola, P. Risse, M. Engel, R. Gora, D. Pekala, J. Wilczynska, B. Wilczynski, H. 2006 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0608101 https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608101 unknown arXiv https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2006.10.005 Assumed arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article for submissions made before January 2004 http://arxiv.org/licenses/assumed-1991-2003/ Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences article-journal Article ScholarlyArticle Text 2006 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0608101 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2006.10.005 2022-04-01T17:42:14Z Cosmic-ray photons above 10^19 eV can convert in the geomagnetic field and initiate a preshower, i.e. a particle cascade before entering the atmosphere. We compare the preshower characteristics at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory. In addition to a shift of the preshower patterns on the sky due to the different pointing of the local magnetic field vectors, the fact that the northern Auger site is closer to the geomagnetic pole results in a different energy dependence of the preshower effect: photon conversion can start at smaller energies, but large conversion probabilitites (>90%) are reached for the whole sky at higher energies compared to the southern Auger site. We show how the complementary preshower features at the two sites can be used to search for ultra-high energy photons among cosmic rays. In particular, the different preshower characteristics at the northern Auger site may provide an elegant and unambiguous confirmation if a photon signal is detected at the southern site. : 25 pages, 14 figures, minor changes, conclusions unchanged, Appendix A replaced, accepted by Astroparticle Physics Text Geomagnetic Pole DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences |
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Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences Homola, P. Risse, M. Engel, R. Gora, D. Pekala, J. Wilczynska, B. Wilczynski, H. Characteristics of geomagnetic cascading of ultra-high energy photons at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory |
topic_facet |
Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences |
description |
Cosmic-ray photons above 10^19 eV can convert in the geomagnetic field and initiate a preshower, i.e. a particle cascade before entering the atmosphere. We compare the preshower characteristics at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory. In addition to a shift of the preshower patterns on the sky due to the different pointing of the local magnetic field vectors, the fact that the northern Auger site is closer to the geomagnetic pole results in a different energy dependence of the preshower effect: photon conversion can start at smaller energies, but large conversion probabilitites (>90%) are reached for the whole sky at higher energies compared to the southern Auger site. We show how the complementary preshower features at the two sites can be used to search for ultra-high energy photons among cosmic rays. In particular, the different preshower characteristics at the northern Auger site may provide an elegant and unambiguous confirmation if a photon signal is detected at the southern site. : 25 pages, 14 figures, minor changes, conclusions unchanged, Appendix A replaced, accepted by Astroparticle Physics |
format |
Text |
author |
Homola, P. Risse, M. Engel, R. Gora, D. Pekala, J. Wilczynska, B. Wilczynski, H. |
author_facet |
Homola, P. Risse, M. Engel, R. Gora, D. Pekala, J. Wilczynska, B. Wilczynski, H. |
author_sort |
Homola, P. |
title |
Characteristics of geomagnetic cascading of ultra-high energy photons at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory |
title_short |
Characteristics of geomagnetic cascading of ultra-high energy photons at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory |
title_full |
Characteristics of geomagnetic cascading of ultra-high energy photons at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory |
title_fullStr |
Characteristics of geomagnetic cascading of ultra-high energy photons at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory |
title_full_unstemmed |
Characteristics of geomagnetic cascading of ultra-high energy photons at the southern and northern sites of the Pierre Auger Observatory |
title_sort |
characteristics of geomagnetic cascading of ultra-high energy photons at the southern and northern sites of the pierre auger observatory |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0608101 https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608101 |
genre |
Geomagnetic Pole |
genre_facet |
Geomagnetic Pole |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2006.10.005 |
op_rights |
Assumed arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article for submissions made before January 2004 http://arxiv.org/licenses/assumed-1991-2003/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0608101 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2006.10.005 |
_version_ |
1766006064245899264 |