High Elevation Auger Telescopes and Tilt Monitoring

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High Elevation Auger Telescopes and Tilt
Monitoring

• Nils Scharf
• 3. Physikalisches Institut A
• RWTH Aachen University
• Astroteilchenschule Erlangen
• 11.10.2008

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Outline

• The Pierre Auger Observatory
• Physics Motivation
• High Elevation Auger Telescopes HEAT
• Tilt Monitoring
• Summary and Outlook

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The Pierre Auger Observatory
24 fluorescence telescopes
Southern site near Malargüe, Argentina
one of four FD buildings (with 6 telescopes each)
HEAT
Amarilla
Coihueco
Water-Cherenkov detector station
Morados
12 tons of water
Leones
30000 events gt 1018.5 eV
Data taking since 2004/01 Completed 2008
gt 1600 surface detector stations
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Physics Motivation for the Extension of the
Energy Range


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Shower Detection with Baseline Telescopes

• Shower only reconstructed when shower maximum in
  field of view
• Geometric bias for low energy showers

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High Elevation Auger Telescopes

• 3 additional telescopes close to existing FD
  building
• Field of view from 30 to 60

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HEAT Properties

• Measurement of cosmic rays with energies down to
  1017 eV
• Measure composition of cosmic ray primaries
• Only 3 additional telescopes needed (high
  statistics at low energies because of steeply
  falling spectrum)
• Small distance to existing FD building allows for
  crosschecks with showers seen in both components

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HEAT SheltersMaintenance Position
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HEAT ShelterData taking position
H. Klages
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Tilt Monitoring

• Inclination of HEAT shelter leads to changes of
  relative position inside the optics system
• Do these changes affect shower reconstruction?
• gt Measure distances and inclinations inside HEAT
  shelter
• If the changes are larger than design tolerances
  modify mechanics
• If the changes are still too large Include them
  in the optic reconstruction

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Hydraulic Design in Aachen Tilt Monitor
Design and Test Setup J. Calvo, Aachen

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Test Setup ofTilt Monitoring System

• System of
• 4 distance
• 4 inclination
• 3 temperature
• sensors installed in bay 6 of Los Leones FD
  building
• Goal Measure distances and inclinations with a
  resolution ten times better than design
  tolerances of 0.5 mm und 0.1

Diploma Thesis J. Calvo
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Test Setup
J. Calvo
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Example 1 Distance Variations
J. Calvo
Variation of 0.1 mm for the distance Shutter
Mirror with temperature variation of 2
C Measured variations much smaller than design
tolerances of 5 mm
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Example 2 Inclination Variations
J. Calvo
Measured variations in inclination smaller than
0.05 for temperature differences of 2
C. Smaller than design tolerance of 0.1.
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Outlook

• Shower detection with first HEAT telescope by the
  end of 2008
• Measurement of cosmic rays with energies down to
  1017 eV (spectrum, composition,)
• Installation of tilt monitoring system in each
  HEAT telescope

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End
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Backup Slides
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segmented spherical mirror
corrector lens
440 PMT camera 1.5 per pixel
aperture box shutter UV pass filter safety
curtain
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Expected Energy Range for HEAT

• HEAT will lower the Energy range of the Pierre
  Auger Observatory from 1018.4 eV to 1017 eV

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Test Setup Distance Sensors
J. Calvo
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Test Setup Inclination Sensors
J. Calvo