Upper limit on the cosmic-ray photon fraction at EeV energies from the Pierre Auger Observatory

THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION: SON 450 AUTORES, A.C. ROVERO

ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS

Elsevier

Lugar: Holanda; Año: 2009 vol. 31 p. 399 - 406

0927-6505

From direct observations of the longitudinal development of ultra-high energy air showers performed with the Pierre Auger Observatory, upper limits of 3.8%, 2.4%, 3.5% and 11.7% (at 95% c.l.) are obtained on the fraction of cosmic-ray photons above 2, 3, 5 and 10 EeV (1 EeV ≡ 10^18 eV) respectively. These are the first experimental limits on ultra-high energy photons at energies below 10 EeV. The results complement previous constraints on top-down models from array data and they reduce systematic uncertainties in the interpretation of shower data in terms of primary flux, nuclear composition and proton-air cross-section.