Particle Astrophysics with the Pierre Auger Observatory and Simulations of Ultrahigh Energy Air Showers

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The construction of the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) is now complete. Work carried out under this award will enhance Auger's ability to determine Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) energies and composition and will use Auger data to address fundamental questions in Particle Astrophysics. The PI plans to: --Improve atmospheric shower modeling, in particular assuring that simulated showers correctly describe Auger data as well as observations of the KASCADE and MINOS experiments. Intense international effort has failed so far, suggesting that new physics in ultra-high-energy particle interactions might be responsible;--Improve the reconstruction of individual UHECR air showers and determine the primary particle's composition; --Analyze Auger data to address astrophysical questions. In particular, to implement recently developed optimized methods for correlation studies, to identify clusters of events from a common source in spite of magnetic deflections and to work to identify the sources of UHECRs.Broader Impacts: Impacts on society under this proposal include: --Undergraduate participation in the research; particular care will be taken to identify, include and mentor candidates from underrepresented groups. --The PI gives many public lectures, and is active in mentoring women students and faculty of all ages. --The New York Schools Cosmic Particle Telescope project is being developed by the PI and her group, in collaboration with high school students and teachers and persons from the community.