Abstract
Previous measurements of the composition of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) made by the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) and Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) are seemingly contradictory, but utilize different detection methods, as HiRes was a stereo detector and PAO is a hybrid detector. The five year Telescope Array (TA) Middle Drum hybrid composition measurement is similar in some, but not all, respects in methodology to PAO, and good agreement is evident between data and a light, largely protonic, composition when comparing the measurements to predictions obtained with the QGSJetII-03 and QGSJet-01c models. These models are also in agreement with previous HiRes stereo measurements, confirming the equivalence of the stereo and hybrid methods. The data is incompatible with a pure iron composition, for all models examined, over the available range of energies. The elongation rate and mean values of Xmax are in good agreement with Pierre Auger Observatory data. This analysis is presented using two methods: data cuts using simple geometrical variables and a new pattern recognition technique.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 49-62 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Astroparticle Physics |
Volume | 64 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 Apr |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The Telescope Array experiment is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science through Grants-in-Aids for Scientific Research on Specially Promoted Research (21000002) “Extreme Phenomena in the Universe Explored by Highest Energy Cosmic Rays” and for Scientific Research (19104006), and the Inter-University Research Program of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research; by the U.S. National Science Foundation awards PHY-0307098, PHY-0601915, PHY-0649681, PHY-0703893, PHY-0758342, PHY-0848320, PHY-1069280, and PHY-1069286; by the National Research Foundation of Korea (2007–0093860, R32–10130, 2012R1A1A2008381, 2013004883); by the Russian Academy of Sciences, RFBR grants 11–02-01528a and 13–02-01311a (INR), IISN project No. 4.4509.10 and Belgian Science Policy under IUAP VII/37 (ULB). This work was supported by the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI Initiative), MEXT, Japan. The foundations of Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke, Willard L. Eccles and the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles all helped with generous donations. The State of Utah supported the project through its Economic Development Board, and the University of Utah through the Office of the Vice President for Research. The experimental site became available through the cooperation of the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Air Force. We also wish to thank the people and the officials of Millard County, Utah for their steadfast and warm support. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions from the technical staffs of our home institutions. An allocation of computer time from the Center for High Performance Computing at the University of Utah is gratefully acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier B.V.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Astronomy and Astrophysics