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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Searching For Anomalous Extensive Air Showers Using The Pierre Auger Observatory Fluorescence Detector, Andrew Puyleart Jan 2022

Searching For Anomalous Extensive Air Showers Using The Pierre Auger Observatory Fluorescence Detector, Andrew Puyleart

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Anomalous extensive air showers have yet to be detected by cosmic ray observatories. Fluorescence detectors provide a way to view the air showers created by cosmic rays with primary energies reaching up to hundreds of EeV . The resulting air showers produced by these highly energetic collisions can contain features that deviate from average air showers. Detection of these anomalous events may provide information into unknown regions of particle physics, and place constraints on cross-sectional interaction lengths of protons. In this dissertation, I propose measurements of extensive air shower profiles that are used in a machine learning pipeline to distinguish …


Gamma/Hadron Separation For The Hawc Observatory, Michael J. Gerhardt Jan 2017

Gamma/Hadron Separation For The Hawc Observatory, Michael J. Gerhardt

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is a gamma-ray observatory sensitive to gamma rays from 100 GeV to 100 TeV with an instantaneous field of view of ~2 sr. It is located on the Sierra Negra plateau in Mexico at an elevation of 4,100 m and began full operation in March 2015. The purpose of the detector is to study relativistic particles that are produced by interstellar and intergalactic objects such as: pulsars, supernova remnants, molecular clouds, black holes and more. To achieve optimal angular resolution, energy reconstruction and cosmic ray background suppression for the extensive air showers detected by …