Search for ultra-high energy photons with AMIGA muon counters

N. GONZÁLEZ; A. ETCHEGOYEN; F. SÁNCHEZ; M. ROTH

Hamburgo

Conferencia; Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Física Alemana (DPG); 2016

The study of the primary mass composition of ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CR) is one ofthe topical problems of astroparticle physics. In particular, the discovery of UHE photons, i.e.photons with energies around 1 EeV, in primary cosmic rays could be of particular interest not onlyfor the field of astroparticle physics, but also for astrophysics and fundamental physics, since theyare tracers of the highest-energy processes in the Universe.For the search for these UHE photons at the Pierre Auger Observatory, several parameters havebeen proposed to distinguish between primary hadrons and photons. One of the most promisingapproaches to the search of primary gamma rays is the study of the muon component in theextensive air showers (EAS) produced in the interaction between the CR and the atmosphere. Thenumber of muons in showers induced by gamma primaries is an order of magnitude lower than thehadronic primaries counterpart.The AMIGA extension of the Pierre Auger Observatory, consisting of an array of buried scintillatorscounters, allows the study of the muons produced during the EAS development. In this talk, thesensitivity of the muon counters to photon-initiated EAS and the possible discrimination procedureswill be discussed using dedicated EAS simulations with CORSIKA software.