Highlights from the Pierre Auger Observatory

P. GHIA FOR THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION, B. WUNDHEILER

Conferencia; The 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference; 2015

The Pierre Auger Observatory, located near the town of Malargüe, Argentina, has been detecting ultra-high energy cosmic rays for more than ten years. An essential feature of the 3000 km^2 Observatory is its hybrid design: cosmic rays above 10^17 eV are detected through the observation of the associated air showers with different and complementary techniques, from surface detector arrays and fluorescence telescopes to radio antennas. The analyses of the multi-detector data have enabled high-statistics and high-precision studies of the energy spectrum, mass composition and distribution of arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), the investigation of whose origin being a primary objective of the Observatory. The resulting picture, calling into question the perception of UHECRs at the time of the conception of the Observatory in the early 1990s, has led to a plan for an upgrade of the Observatory. The variety of the instruments and analyses has also allowed us to touch upon other aspects than just the astrophysics of UHECRs: information of relevance to high-energy particle interactions as well as to solar and heliospheric phenomena is part of the science harvest from 10 years of operation presented at the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference.