Measurement of the Depth of Maximum of Extensive Air Showers above 1018 eV

THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION, INCLUYE S. MOLLERACH

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Año: 2010 vol. 104 p. 1 - 7

0031-9007

We describe the measurement of the depth of maximum, Xmax, of the longitudinal development of air showers induced by cosmic rays. Almost four thousand events above 10^18 eV observed by the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory in coincidence with at least one surface detector station are selected for the analysis. The average shower maximum was found to evolve with energy at a rate of (106 +35/-21) g/cm^2/decade below 10^(18.24 +/- 0.05) eV and (24 +/- 3) g/cm^2/decade above this energy. The measured shower-to-shower fluctuations decrease from about 55 to 26 g/cm^2. The interpretation of these results in terms of the cosmic ray mass composition is briefly discussed.