Comparison of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray flux observed by AGASA, HiRes, and Auger

Abstract:

The current measurements of the cosmic ray energy spectrum at ultra-high energies (E> 10 19 eV) are characterized by large systematic errors and poor statistics. In addition, the experimental results of the two experiments with the largest published data sets, AGASA and HiRes, appear to be inconsistent with each other, with AGASA seeing an unabated continuation of the energy spectrum even at energies beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff energy at 10 19.6 eV. Given the importance of the related astrophysical questions regarding the unknown origin of these highly energetic particles, it is crucial that the extent to which these measurements disagree be well understood. Here we evaluate the consistency of the two measurements for the first time with a model-independent method that accounts for the large statistical and systematic errors of current measurements. We further compare the AGASA and …

Año de publicación:

2006

Keywords:

Fuente:

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