Proposal to Operate and Analyze Data from the High Resolution Fly's Eye Detector

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9974537SokolskyThis is a proposal to operate the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) observatory. This detector, located at the US Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, is composed of two stations 12.7 km apart. It detects ultra high energy cosmic rays via nitrogen fluorescence in the atmosphere. The observatory is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 1999. This proposal is for the first 2 1/2 years of full operation. The goals of the experiment are the study of the spectrum, composition, and anisotropy of cosmic rays of energies from 10^18 eV to beyond 10^20 eV. Previous experiments, including the original Fly's Eye experiment, have shown evidence that the spectrum continues past the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff.The nature of the events above the cutoff is a puzzle which has stimulated much theoretical speculation. The HiRes detector will have an order of magnitude greater sensitivity than the previous Fly's Eye experiment. The project is a collaboration between the University of Utah, Columbia University, the University of Adelaide, the University of New Mexico, UCLA, and Montana State University.The educational outreach program, called "ASPIRE", provides direct access, via the internet, by Utah students and teachers to current research in astrophysics and produces interactive on-line physics lessons for use in K-12 classrooms and distance learning. The ASPIRE activity is supported jointly by the MPS Division of Physics and the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA).