No Arabic abstract
The scale and scope of the physics studied at the Auger Observatory offer significant opportunities for original outreach work. Education, outreach, and public relations of the Auger collaboration are coordinated in a task of its own whose goals are to encourage and support a wide range of efforts that link schools and the public with the Auger scientists and the science of cosmic rays, particle physics, and associated technologies. This report focuses on the impact of the collaboration in Mendoza Province, Argentina, as: the Auger Visitor Center in Malargue that has hosted over 29,000 visitors since 2001, the Auger Celebration and a collaboration-sponsored science fair held on the Observatory campus in November 2005, the opening of the James Cronin School in Malargue in November 2006, public lectures, school visits, and courses for science teachers. As the collaboration prepares the proposal for the northern Auger site foreseen to be in southeast Colorado, plans for a comprehensive outreach program are being developed in parallel, as described here.
Ongoing and planned enhancements of the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the worlds largest cosmic ray observatory. Our current exposure reaches nearly 40,000 km$^2$ str and provides us with an unprecedented quality data set. The performance and stability of the detectors and their enhancements are described. Data analyses have led to a number of major breakthroughs. Among these we discuss the energy spectrum and the searches for large-scale anisotropies. We present analyses of our X$_{max}$ data and show how it can be interpreted in terms of mass composition. We also describe some new analyses that extract mass sensitive parameters from the 100% duty cycle SD data. A coherent interpretation of all these recent results opens new directions. The consequences regarding the cosmic ray composition and the properties of UHECR sources are briefly discussed.
The Pierre Auger Observatory, located on a vast, high plain in western Argentina, is the worlds largest cosmic ray observatory. The objectives of the Observatory are to probe the origin and characteristics of cosmic rays above $10^{17}$ eV and to study the interactions of these, the most energetic particles observed in nature. The Auger design features an array of 1660 water-Cherenkov particle detector stations spread over 3000 km$^2$ overlooked by 24 air fluorescence telescopes. In addition, three high elevation fluorescence telescopes overlook a 23.5 km$^2$, 61-detector infilled array with 750 m spacing. The Observatory has been in successful operation since completion in 2008 and has recorded data from an exposure exceeding 40,000 km$^2$ sr yr. This paper describes the design and performance of the detectors, related subsystems and infrastructure that make up the Auger Observatory.
Reports on the atmospheric monitoring, calibration, and other operating systems of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Contributions to the 31st International Cosmic Ray Conference, Lodz, Poland, July 2009.
Technical reports on operations and monitoring of the Pierre Auger Observatory