Título: | INTRINSIC FLUCTUATIONS OF EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS AND THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF ULTRA HIGH ENERGY COSMIC RAYS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Autor: |
MARY LUCIA DIAZ CASTRO |
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Colaborador(es): |
RONALD CINTRA SHELLARD - Orientador EDIVALDO MOURA SANTOS - Coorientador |
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Catalogação: | 23/JUL/2012 | Língua(s): | PORTUGUESE - BRAZIL |
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Tipo: | TEXT | Subtipo: | THESIS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notas: |
[pt] Todos os dados constantes dos documentos são de inteira responsabilidade de seus autores. Os dados utilizados nas descrições dos documentos estão em conformidade com os sistemas da administração da PUC-Rio. [en] All data contained in the documents are the sole responsibility of the authors. The data used in the descriptions of the documents are in conformity with the systems of the administration of PUC-Rio. |
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Referência(s): |
[pt] https://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/projetosEspeciais/ETDs/consultas/conteudo.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=19921&idi=1 [en] https://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/projetosEspeciais/ETDs/consultas/conteudo.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=19921&idi=2 |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.17771/PUCRio.acad.19921 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Resumo: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Pierre Auger Observatory is an ultra high energy cosmic
ray detector (E more than or equal as 1018 eV) which has hybrid characteristics combining
surface and fluorescence detectors. Determining the cosmic rays chemical
composition is one of its most important challenges. There are evidences
that cosmic ray primaries with energy above 1018.5 eV are heavy and this
conclusion is based on recent results on the evolution of extensive air showers
(cascades of particles formed by the collision of primary cosmic rays in the
top of the atmosphere with nitrogen and oxygen molecules). Therefore, it is
mandatory to find additional parameters supporting that conclusion. In this
thesis, the evolution with energy of parameters characterizing the shower
and with sensitivity to chemical composition are studied. More specifically,
parameters determined by the surface detector are analyzed due to the high
statistics in this operation mode. Special attention is given to the instrinsic
- shower to shower - fluctuations of the slope parameter (beta) of the Lateral
Distribution Function which describes the particles density variation in the
plane perpendicular to the shower axis as a function of distance to that axis.
The results show that the intrinsic fluctuation of Beta, for inclined showers
(45-60 degrees) with energy above 1018.5 eV, where the detector resolution is small
compared to the total fluctuation, has a trend to decrease with energy up
to 1019.6 eV. This result is consistent with recent results on the energy
evolution of the depth of shower maxima (Xmax) of extensive air showers,
where above 1018.5 eV, the distributions of Xmax show less fluctuations,
leading, in turn, to less fluctuations on the ground level.
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