Primary Cosmic Rays Composition: Simulations and Detector Design

D. SUPANITSKY; G. MEDINA-TANCO; A. ETCHEGOYEN; M. GÓMEZ BERISSO; C. MEDINA

Iguazu, Argentina

Simposio; VI Latin American Symposium on Nuclear Physics and Aplications; 2005

The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector system for the detection of very high energy cosmic rays. A most difficult and important problem in these studies is the determination of the primary cosmic ray composition for which muon content in air showers appears to be one of the best parameters to discriminate between different composition types. Although the Pierre Auger surface detectors, which consist of water Cherenkov tanks, are sensitive to muon content they are not able to measure the number of muons directly. In this work we study using simulations the information that can be gained by adding muon detectors to the Auger surface detectors. We consider muon counters with two alternative areas.