Improving photon-hadron discrimination based on cosmic ray surface detector data
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- 作者：G. Ros ; A.D. Supanitsky ; G.A. Medina-Tanco ; L. del Peral ; M.D. Rodr¨ªguez-Fr¨ªas
- 关键词：Cosmic rays ; Photon discrimination ; Cherenkov detectors ; SbSb parameter
- 刊名：Astroparticle Physics
- 出版年：2013
- 出版时间：July, 2013
- 年：2013
- 卷：47
- 期：Complete
- 页码：10-17
- 全文大小：2646 K
文摘
The search for photons at EeV energies and beyond has considerable astrophysical interest and will remain one of the key challenges for ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) observatories in the near future. Several upper limits to the photon flux have been established since no photon has been unambiguously observed up to now. An improvement in the reconstruction efficiency of the photon showers and/or better discrimination tools are needed to improve these limits apart from an increase in statistics. Following this direction, we analyze in this work the ability of the surface parameter , originally proposed for hadron discrimination, for photon search.
Semi-analytical and numerical studies are performed in order to optimize for the discrimination of photons from a proton background in the energy range from to eV. Although not shown explicitly, the same analysis has been performed for Fe nuclei and the corresponding results are discussed when appropriate. The effects of different array geometries and the underestimation of the muon component in the shower simulations are analyzed, as well as the dependence on primary energy and zenith angle.