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Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Mar 05;104(9):091101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.091101. Epub 2010 Mar 01.

Measurement of the depth of maximum of extensive air showers above 10{18} eV.

Physical review letters

J Abraham, P Abreu, M Aglietta, E J Ahn, D Allard, I Allekotte, J Allen, J Alvarez-Muñiz, M Ambrosio, L Anchordoqui, S Andringa, T Anticić, A Anzalone, C Aramo, E Arganda, K Arisaka, F Arqueros, H Asorey, P Assis, J Aublin, M Ave, G Avila, T Bäcker, D Badagnani, M Balzer, K B Barber, A F Barbosa, S L C Barroso, B Baughman, P Bauleo, J J Beatty, B R Becker, K H Becker, A Bellétoile, J A Bellido, S Benzvi, C Berat, T Bergmann, X Bertou, P L Biermann, P Billoir, O Blanch-Bigas, F Blanco, M Blanco, C Bleve, H Blümer, M Bohácová, D Boncioli, C Bonifazi, R Bonino, N Borodai, J Brack, P Brogueira, W C Brown, R Bruijn, P Buchholz, A Bueno, R E Burton, N G Busca, K S Caballero-Mora, L Caramete, R Caruso, A Castellina, O Catalano, G Cataldi, L Cazon, R Cester, J Chauvin, A Chiavassa, J A Chinellato, A Chou, J Chudoba, R W Clay, E Colombo, M R Coluccia, R Conceição, F Contreras, H Cook, M J Cooper, J Coppens, A Cordier, U Cotti, S Coutu, C E Covault, A Creusot, A Criss, J Cronin, A Curutiu, S Dagoret-Campagne, R Dallier, K Daumiller, B R Dawson, R M de Almeida, M De Domenico, C De Donato, S J de Jong, G De La Vega, W J M de Mello Junior, J R T de Mello Neto, I De Mitri, V de Souza, K D de Vries, G Decerprit, L Del Peral, O Deligny, A Della Selva, C Delle Fratte, H Dembinski, C Di Giulio, J C Diaz, M L Díaz Castro, P N Diep, C Dobrigkeit, J C D'Olivo, P N Dong, A Dorofeev, J C Dos Anjos, M T Dova, D D'Urso, I Dutan, M A Duvernois, J Ebr, R Engel, M Erdmann, C O Escobar, A Etchegoyen, P Facal San Luis, H Falcke, G Farrar, A C Fauth, N Fazzini, A Ferrero, B Fick, A Filevich, A Filipcic, I Fleck, S Fliescher, C E Fracchiolla, E D Fraenkel, U Fröhlich, W Fulgione, R F Gamarra, S Gambetta, B García, D García Gámez, D Garcia-Pinto, X Garrido, G Gelmini, H Gemmeke, P L Ghia, U Giaccari, M Giller, H Glass, L M Goggin, M S Gold, G Golup, F Gomez Albarracin, M Gómez Berisso, P Gonçalves, D Gonzalez, J G Gonzalez, D Góra, A Gorgi, P Gouffon, S R Gozzini, E Grashorn, S Grebe, M Grigat, A F Grillo, Y Guardincerri, F Guarino, G P Guedes, J D Hague, V Halenka, P Hansen, D Harari, S Harmsma, J L Harton, A Haungs, T Hebbeker, D Heck, A E Herve, C Hojvat, V C Holmes, P Homola, J R Hörandel, A Horneffer, M Hrabovský, T Huege, M Hussain, M Iarlori, A Insolia, F Ionita, A Italiano, S Jiraskova, K Kadija, M Kaducak, K H Kampert, T Karova, P Kasper, B Kégl, B Keilhauer, A Keivani, J Kelley, E Kemp, R M Kieckhafer, H O Klages, M Kleifges, J Kleinfeller, R Knapik, J Knapp, D-H Koang, A Krieger, O Krömer, D Kruppke-Hansen, F Kuehn, D Kuempel, K Kulbartz, N Kunka, A Kusenko, G La Rosa, C Lachaud, B L Lago, P Lautridou, M S A B Leão, D Lebrun, P Lebrun, J Lee, M A Leigui de Oliveira, A Lemiere, A Letessier-Selvon, I Lhenry-Yvon, R López, A Lopez Agüera, K Louedec, J Lozano Bahilo, A Lucero, M Ludwig, H Lyberis, M C Maccarone, C Macolino, S Maldera, D Mandat, P Mantsch, A G Mariazzi, V Marin, I C Maris, H R Marquez Falcon, G Marsella, D Martello, O Martínez Bravo, H J Mathes, J Matthews, J A J Matthews, G Matthiae, D Maurizio, P O Mazur, M McEwen, G Medina-Tanco, M Melissas, D Melo, E Menichetti, A Menshikov, C Meurer, S Micanović, M I Micheletti, W Miller, L Miramonti, S Mollerach, M Monasor, D Monnier Ragaigne, F Montanet, B Morales, C Morello, E Moreno, J C Moreno, C Morris, M Mostafá, S Mueller, M A Muller, R Mussa, G Navarra, J L Navarro, S Navas, P Necesal, L Nellen, P T Nhung, N Nierstenhoefer, D Nitz, D Nosek, L Nozka, M Nyklicek, J Oehlschläger, A Olinto, P Oliva, V M Olmos-Gilbaja, M Ortiz, N Pacheco, D Pakk Selmi-Dei, M Palatka, J Pallotta, N Palmieri, G Parente, E Parizot, S Parlati, A Parra, J Parrisius, R D Parsons, S Pastor, T Paul, V Pavlidou, K Payet, M Pech, J Pekala, R Pelayo, I M Pepe, L Perrone, R Pesce, E Petermann, S Petrera, P Petrinca, A Petrolini, Y Petrov, J Petrovic, C Pfendner, R Piegaia, T Pierog, M Pimenta, V Pirronello, M Platino, V H Ponce, M Pontz, P Privitera, M Prouza, E J Quel, J Rautenberg, O Ravel, D Ravignani, A Redondo, B Revenu, F A S Rezende, J Ridky, S Riggi, M Risse, P Ristori, C Rivière, V Rizi, C Robledo, G Rodriguez, J Rodriguez Martino, J Rodriguez Rojo, I Rodriguez-Cabo, M D Rodríguez-Frías, G Ros, J Rosado, T Rossler, M Roth, B Rouillé-d'Orfeuil, E Roulet, A C Rovero, F Salamida, H Salazar, G Salina, F Sánchez, M Santander, C E Santo, E Santos, E M Santos, F Sarazin, S Sarkar, R Sato, N Scharf, V Scherini, H Schieler, P Schiffer, A Schmidt, F Schmidt, T Schmidt, O Scholten, H Schoorlemmer, J Schovancova, P Schovánek, F Schroeder, S Schulte, F Schüssler, D Schuster, S J Sciutto, M Scuderi, A Segreto, D Semikoz, M Settimo, A Shadkam, R C Shellard, I Sidelnik, B B Siffert, G Sigl, A Smiałkowski, R Smída, G R Snow, P Sommers, J Sorokin, H Spinka, R Squartini, J Stasielak, M Stephan, E Strazzeri, A Stutz, F Suarez, T Suomijärvi, A D Supanitsky, T Susa, M S Sutherland, J Swain, Z Szadkowski, A Tamashiro, A Tamburro, A Tapia, T Tarutina, O Taşcău, R Tcaciuc, D Tcherniakhovski, D Tegolo, N T Thao, D Thomas, J Tiffenberg, C Timmermans, W Tkaczyk, C J Todero Peixoto, B Tomé, A Tonachini, P Travnicek, D B Tridapalli, G Tristram, E Trovato, M Tueros, R Ulrich, M Unger, M Urban, J F Valdés Galicia, I Valiño, L Valore, A M van den Berg, J R Vázquez, R A Vázquez, D Veberic, T Venters, V Verzi, M Videla, L Villaseñor, S Vorobiov, L Voyvodic, H Wahlberg, P Wahrlich, O Wainberg, D Warner, A A Watson, S Westerhoff, B J Whelan, G Wieczorek, L Wiencke, B Wilczyńska, H Wilczyński, C Williams, T Winchen, M G Winnick, B Wundheiler, T Yamamoto, P Younk, G Yuan, A Yushkov, E Zas, D Zavrtanik, M Zavrtanik, I Zaw, A Zepeda, M Ziolkowski,

Affiliations

  1. National Technological University, Faculty Mendoza (CONICET/CNEA), Mendoza, Argentina.

PMID: 20366976 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.091101

Abstract

We describe the measurement of the depth of maximum, X{max}, of the longitudinal development of air showers induced by cosmic rays. Almost 4000 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{-21}{+35}) 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.

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