The Auger Project at Pennsylvania State

9901506

Beatty

The Auger Observatory is an international effort to make a detailed study of cosmic rays at the highest energies. The objectives are to measure the arrival direction, energy and mass composition of cosmic rays above 10^19 eV. The project will employ a hybrid of two established techniques for measuring such high energy particles: air fluorescence and a surface array of particle detectors. In this proposal the Penn State group requests operating and scientific support for the group's role in the Auger project, which includes leadership pf the international effort to construct the electronics package for the 1600 surface detectors. The PI is the project's task leader for the surface electronics, and the Co-PI has taken a leading role in the characterization, selection, and testing of photomultipliers for the surface detector stations. Both plan to work on the triggering, understanding of mass composition effects, and interpretation of the Auger data.