Study of Highest Energy Cosmic Rays

宇宙射线的能量已被观测到超过10^20电子伏特。目前还不清楚这些粒子是如何被加速到这样的能量的，因为标准的加速场景很难超过10^15 eV左右。然而，很明显，这些极高能量的宇宙射线的来源一定在附近。否则，与微波背景的相互作用将降低粒子的能量，从而阻止它们从遥远的来源到达我们。俄歇实验旨在研究这些最高能量的粒子。俄歇将是第一个足够大（9000 km^2-sr）的空气阵雨阵列，可以探测到合理数量的10^20 eV事件，它应该有足够的角分辨率（1度）来追踪它们在天空中的来源。这一建议将通过在探测器中模拟宇宙射线阵雨来帮助俄歇项目的发展。

Cosmic rays have been observed up to energies in excess of 10^20 eV. It is not at all clear how these particles are accelerated up to such energies, since standard acceleration scenarios have difficulties above 10^15 eV or so. It is clear, though, that the sources of these extremely high energy cosmic rays must be nearby. Otherwise interactions with the microwave background will degrade the particle energies, and thereby prevent them from getting to us from distant sources. The Auger experiment is designed to study these highest energy particles. Auger would be the first air shower array large enough (9000 km^2-sr) to detect a reasonable number of 10^20 eV events, and it should have sufficient angular resolution (1 degree) to trace them back to their sources in the sky. This proposal will aid in the Auger project development through simulation of cosmic ray showers in the detectors.