AugerPrime Surface Detector Electronics

TL;DR

The paper details the design, manufacturing, testing, and calibration of upgraded electronics for the AugerPrime surface detectors, enhancing timing, dynamic range, and data processing capabilities to improve cosmic ray composition analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a new electronics system for the Pierre Auger Observatory's surface detectors, improving timing accuracy, dynamic range, and processing for better cosmic ray composition measurements.

Findings

Successful manufacturing and testing of new electronics

Enhanced calibration and performance parameters from commissioning data

Improved timing and dynamic range capabilities

Abstract

Operating since 2004, the Pierre Auger Observatory has led to major advances in our understanding of the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. The latest findings have revealed new insights that led to the upgrade of the Observatory, with the primary goal of obtaining information on the primary mass of the most energetic cosmic rays on a shower-by-shower basis. In the framework of the upgrade, called AugerPrime, the 1660 water-Cherenkov detectors of the surface array are equipped with plastic scintillators and radio antennas, allowing us to enhance the composition sensitivity. To accommodate new detectors and to increase experimental capabilities, the electronics is also upgraded. This includes better timing with up-to-date GPS receivers, higher sampling frequency, increased dynamic range, and more powerful local processing of the data. In this paper, the design characteristics of the new electronics and the enhanced dynamic range will be described. The manufacturing and test processes will be outlined and the test results will be discussed. The calibration of the SD detector and various performance parameters obtained from the analysis of the first commissioning data will also be presented.