Michigan Technological University
Department of Physics

is pleased to announce a colloquium

with

Brian Fick

Scientific Prospects for the Hybrid Auger Detector

The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory has been designed to investigate the origins of cosmic rays at the highest energy. Most of the science will be accomplished with data collected with a 3000 km² surface detector array (SD). But there is more to the observatory. It is actually a hybrid detector. For perhaps 10 percent of the time it will view cosmic ray induced extensive air showers using the complimentary techniques of surface particle detection and air fluorescence detection (FD). These multi-dimensional measurements will provide a data set which will be superior in quality to either technique used by itself. Nominally, the hybrid measurements will be used to calibrate the energy scale of the the SD by means of the less model-dependent FD results. It will also provide a good way to check on the systematics of both FD and SD. But what is the value of the hybrid detector aside from a calibration and cross-check tool? What kinds of scientific inquiries can be uniquely made with the hybrid detector?. In this talk I will endeavor to answer these questions.

Monday, August 18, 2003

2:30 p.m., Fisher 101

Refreshments will be served

MTU | Physics | Colloquium