Speaker
Prof.
João de Mello Neto
(Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)
Description
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) are the highest energy messengers of the present universe, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV. Studies of astrophysical particles (hadrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed energies have implications for fundamental physics as well as astrophysics. The primary particles interacts in the atmosphere and generates an extensive air shower. Analysis of those showers enables one not only to estimate the energy, direction and most probable mass of the primary cosmic particles, but also to obtain information about the properties of their hadronic interactions at an energy more than one order of magnitude above that accessible with the current highest energy human-made accelerator. In this contribution we will review the state-of-the-art in UHECRs detection. We will present the leading experiments and discuss the cosmic ray energy spectrum, searches for directional anisotropy, studies of mass composition, the determination of the number of shower muons (which is sensitive to the shower hadronic interactions), and limits on the fluxes of primary photons and neutrinos.
Author
Prof.
João de Mello Neto
(Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)
