Piritakua: the atmosphere as a high-energy physics laboratory

TL;DR

The Piritakua project uses a cosmic-ray detector array in Mexico City to study how atmospheric variations like pressure, temperature, and electric fields affect high-energy particle interactions in the atmosphere.

Contribution

This work introduces the Piritakua experiment, integrating a scintillator array with environmental sensors to explore atmospheric effects on cosmic-ray interactions.

Findings

Initial data shows atmospheric conditions influence secondary particle production.

The detector setup successfully correlates atmospheric changes with cosmic-ray measurements.

First results demonstrate the feasibility of studying atmospheric effects on high-energy interactions.

Abstract

The atmosphere provides a large set of experimental conditions on which cosmic-ray induced high-energy hadron interactions can take place. These conditions include: sudden changes in the atmospheric pressure, temperature, and in the local electric and magnetic fields. In this talk we introduce the Piritakua (flash of lightning, in the language of the pre-Columbian Pur\'epecha Empire in Mexico) project, a cosmic-ray detector located at the Instituto de F\'isica of UNAM, in Mexico City at 2280 m. a.s.l. The experiment consists of a small array of scintillator detectors, which use the electronics developed by the CosmicWatch project. The scintillators operate simultaneously with an electric field meter, a magnetometer, a meteorological station, and a hemispheric camera. We propose to use Piritakua to study the modification of the secondary particle production and propagation under sudden variations in the standard atmospheric properties. We present the current status and the first results of the experiment.