Trigger and Aperture of the Surface Detector Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

AUGER COLLABORATION, B. WUNDHEILER

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

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2009 p. 29 - 39

0168-9002

The surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory consists of 1600 water-Cherenkov detectors, for the study of extensive air showers (EAS) generated by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. We describe the trigger hierarchy, from the identification of candidate showers at the level of a single detector, amongst a large background (mainly random single cosmic ray muons), up to the selection of real events and the rejection of random coincidences. Such trigger makes the surface detector array fully efficient for the detection of EAS with energy above 3x10^18 eV, for all zenith angles between 0deg and 60deg, independently of the position of the impact point and of the mass of the primary particle. In these rangeUltra high energy cosmic rays of energies and angles, the exposure of the surface array can be determined purely on the basis of the geometrical acceptance.