Office: 347 Nicholson
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RESEARCH INTERESTS
Pierre Auger Observatory
My research involves the experimental study of the highest energy cosmis rays. My group and I are engaged in several areas of hardware, electronics, and computer simulations for the new Pierre Auger Observatory. This project is an international collaboration of over 300 scientists and engineers.
The goal of the Pierre Auger Project is to measure the energy, direction, and composition of the highest energy (> 1019 eV) cosmic rays. No known mechanism can fully account for the acceleration of cosmic rays to such high energies. Their extreme energy ensures that they suffer little deflection when passing through relatively weak Galactic or intergalactic magnetic fields. Cosmic rays will interact with the cosmic background radiation, so any observed at earth must have originated at distances within about 100 Mpc.
The Auger Observatory reported in 2007 an association of cosmic rays with Active Galactic Nuclei. This is the first time cosmic rays at the highest energy have been seen to correlate with objects believed capable of accelerating them to high energy. This observation was named one of the “Top Ten Discoveries” in 2007 by the American Institute of Physics. More data is being collected, and a second observatory is planned in the United States, to confirm and understand this result.
CURRENT AND SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- J. Abraham, et al., the Pierre
Auger Collaboration, "Upper Limit on the diffuse flux of UHE tau neutrinos from the Pierre Auger Observatory", submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.
(arXiv:0712.1909 [astro-ph])
- J. Abraham, et al., the Pierre Auger Collaboration, "Upper Limit on the Cosmic-Ray Photon Flux Above 1019 eV Using the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory," to appear in Astropart. Phys. (2008).
(arXiv:0712.1147 [astro-ph])
- J. Abraham, et al., the Pierre Auger Collaboration, "Correlation of the highest-energy cosmic rays with the positions of nearby active galactic nuclei," Astropart. Phys. 29, 188 (2008).
(arXiv:0712.2843 [astro-ph])
- J. Abraham, et al., the Pierre Auger Collaboration, "Correlation of the highest energy cosmic rays with nearby extragalactic objects," Science 318 (9 November 2007), p. 939.
(arXiv:0711.2256v1 [astro-ph]).
- J. Abraham, et al., the Pierre Auger Collaboration, "Anisotropy studies around the galactic centre at EeV energies with the Auger Observatory," Astropart. Phys. 27, 244 (2007).
(astro-ph/0607382)
- J. Abraham, et al., the Pierre Auger Collaboration, "An upper limit to the photon fraction in cosmic rays above 1019 eV from the Pierre Auger Observatory," Astropart. Phys. 27, 155 (2007).
(astro-ph/0606619)
- B. Fick, M. Malek, J.A.J. Matthews, J. Matthews, R. Meyhandan, M. Mostafa, M. Roberts, P. Sommers, L. Wiencke, "The Central Laser Facility at the Pierre Auger Observatory," J. of Instr. (JINST) 1, P11003 (2006).
- J. Matthews, "A Heitler Model of Extensive Air Showers," Astropart. Phys. 22, 387 (2005).
- J. Abraham, et al., the Pierre Auger Collaboration, "Properties and Performance of the Prototype Instrument for the Pierre Auger Observatory," Nucl. Instr. Meth. A523, 50 (2004).
- J.T. Brack, R. Meyhandan, G.J. Hofman, J. Matthews, "Absolute Photometric Calibration of Large Aperture Optical Systems," Astropart. Phys. 20, 653 (2004).
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