The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory

THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION, B. WUNDHEILER

NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH A - ACCELERATORS, SPECTROMETERS, DETECTORS AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPAMENT

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015

0168-9002

The Pierre Auger Observatory, located on a vast, high plain in western Argentina, is the world's largest cosmic ray observatory. The objectives of the Observatory are to probe the origin and characteristics of cosmic rays above 10^17 eV and to study the interactions of these, the most energetic particles observed in nature. The Auger design features an array of 1660 water Cherenkov particle detector stations spread over3000 km 2 overlooked by 24 air fluorescence telescopes. In addition, three high elevation fluorescence telescopes overlook a 23.5 km^2 , 61-detector infilled array with 750 m spacing. The Observatory has been in successful operation since completion in 2008 and has recorded data from an exposure exceeding 40,000 km^2 sr yr. This paper describes the design and performance of the detectors, related subsystems and infrastructure that make up the Observatory.