Depth of Maximum of Air-Shower Profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory: Measurements at Energies above 10^17.8 eV

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the distribution of the depth of maximum in air-shower profiles at energies above 10^17.8 eV using Pierre Auger Observatory data, comparing results with simulations to infer primary cosmic ray composition.

Contribution

It provides a detailed methodology for selecting unbiased data samples, systematic uncertainty analysis, and parameterizations of detector effects for Xmax measurements at ultra-high energies.

Findings

Xmax distributions vary with energy, indicating changes in cosmic ray composition.

Comparison with simulations suggests a mixed composition of primary cosmic rays.

Systematic uncertainties are well-characterized and accounted for in the analysis.

Abstract

We report a study of the distributions of the depth of maximum, Xmax, of extensive air-shower profiles with energies above 10^17.8 eV as observed with the fluorescence telescopes of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The analysis method for selecting a data sample with minimal sampling bias is described in detail as well as the experimental cross-checks and systematic uncertainties. Furthermore, we discuss the detector acceptance and the resolution of the Xmax measurement and provide parameterizations thereof as a function of energy. The energy dependence of the mean and standard deviation of the Xmax-distributions are compared to air-shower simulations for different nuclear primaries and interpreted in terms of the mean and variance of the logarithmic mass distribution at the top of the atmosphere.