121768620
Search for ultra-high energy neutrinos with the Pierre Auger Observatory
Abstract The Pierre Auger Observatory is sensitive to extensive air showers induced by ultra-high energy neutrinos of all flavors as they interact with the atmosphere and inside the Earth's crust. These air showers display characteristic features that allow their identification. We report on recent searches for ultra-high-energy neutrinos at the Pierre Auger Observatory. We present the different identification criteria used, discuss the sources of background and systematic uncertainties, and place the corresponding limits on the neutrino fluxes.
122764111
Simulation of Pierre Auger Surface Detector Response to Muons
We report the results of simulations of the Pierre Auger surface detector response to muons. The absolute energy scale in Auger surface detectors is characterized by the so called ”Vertical Equivalent Muon” (VEM), which is the average energy deposited by vertical penetrating muons, going through the center of the tank. In reality, for practical reasons, we can only measure the energy deposited by omni-directional muons, triggering on simple coincidence among three PMTs in a detector. Such a trigger provides a characteristic peak in the total charge distribution (”muon hump”). The value of ”VEM” must be inferred from the ”Muon Hump” location. This ratio of “muon hump” to VEM is determined from a few especially equipped tanks, and then applied to all the tanks in the array. As a result, any systematic effects in this ratio would propagate to the whole array. This makes it very important to fully understand the detector response to muons, as well as the “Muon Hump”/VEM ratio and any associated systematics by Monte Carlo. Our studies indicate that we can measure VEM to within 5% accuracy.
11088776
The offline software framework of the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Pierre Auger Observatory is designed to unveil the nature and the origins of the highest energy cosmic rays. The large and geographically dispersed collaboration of physicists and the wide-ranging collection of simulation and reconstruction tasks pose some special challenges for the offline analysis software. We have designed and implemented a general purpose framework which allows collaborators to contribute algorithms and sequencing instructions to build up the variety of applications they require. The framework includes machinery to manage these user codes, to organize the abundance of user-contributed configuration files, to facilitate multi-format file handling, and to provide access to event and time-dependent detector information which can reside in various data sources. A number of utilities are also provided, including a novel geometry package which allows manipulation of abstract geometrical objects independent of coordinate system choice. The framework is implemented in C++, and takes advantage of object oriented design and common open source tools, while keeping the user side simple enough for C++ novices to learn in a reasonable time. The distribution system incorporates unit and acceptance testing in order to support rapid development of both the core framework and contributed user code
17550211
The Pierre Auger Observatory offline software
The Pierre Auger Observatory aims to discover the nature and origins of the highest energy cosmic rays. The large number of physicists involved in the project and the diversity of simulation and reconstruction tasks pose a challenge for the offline analysis software, not unlike the challenges confronting software for very large high energy physics experiments. Previously we have reported on the design and implementation of a general purpose but relatively lightweight framework which allows collaborators to contribute algorithms and sequencing instructions to build up the variety of applications they require. In this report, we update the status of this work and describe some of the successes and difficulties encountered over the last few years of use. We explain the machinery used to manage user contributions, to organize the abundance of configuration files, to facilitate multi-format file handling, and to provide access to event and time-dependent detector information residing in various data sources. We also describe the testing procedures used to help maintain stability of the code in the face of a large number of contributions. Foundation classes will also be discussed, including a novel geometry package which allows manipulation of abstract geometrical objects independent of coordinate system choice.
15555845
The Offline Software of the Pierre Auger Observatory: Lessons Learned
The Offline software framework for data analysis of the Pierre Auger Observatory is a set of computational tools developed to cater to the needs of a large and geographically dispersed collaboration established to measure the spectrum, arrival directions, and composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays over a period of 20 years. One of its design goals was to facilitate the collaborative effort by allowing collaborators to progressively contribute small portions of code. The observatory has grown over time and it has undergone improvements and additions that have tested the flexibility of the framework. The framework was originally thought to accommodate a hybrid view of cosmic ray detection, made of a surface and a fluorescence detector. Since then, the framework has been extended to include a radio antenna array and both under-ground and above-ground scintillator arrays. Different tools from the framework have been used by other collaborations, notably NA61/Shine and HAWC. All these experiences accumulated over the years allow us to draw conclusions in terms of the successes and failures of the original design.
118006276
Signatures of air showers induced by gluinos within the context of split-SUSY
It has been proposed recently that, within the framework of split Supersymmetry, long lived gluinos generated in astrophysical sources could be detected using the signatures of the air showers they produce, thus providing a lower bound for their lifetime and for the scale of SUSY breaking. We present the longitudinal profile and lateral spread of -hadron induced extensive air showers and consider the possibility of measuring them with a detector with the characteristics of the Pierre Auger Observatory.
190997456
Spectroscopy, reactions and decay mechanisms of mesons with heavy quarks
[ES] Se presenta en este trabajo un estudio exhaustivo de las propiedades de mesones pesados usando un modelo de quark constituyente no relativista. Nos hemos centrado en la descripcion del espectro y de las desintegraciones electromagneticas, fuertes y debiles. Pueden encontrarse a lo largo de este trabajo la descripcion de las diferentes aproximaciones que se usan y la comparacion de nuestros resultados con los datos experimentales y con los resultados obtenidos a traves de otras aproximaciones. Se ha obtenido una descripcion global bastante razonable del espectro de mesones pesados. Se han hecho algunas asignaciones de los mesones XYZ, explicando otras propiedades de los estados asignados. Se han sugerido ciertas modificaciones al modelo de quark constituyente original. Como la incorporacion al potencial OGE de las correcciones a 1-loop que ha servido para explicar la masa experimental del meson 
D_{s0}^{*}(2317) como un estado c\bar{s}. Tambien, la renormalizacion con condiciones de contorno aplicada al modelo de quark constituyente nos ha servido para desenmaranar la fisica del estado fundamental respecto de la de los estados excitados. Hemos llevado a cabo el calculo de las desintegraciones OZI-permitidas de los mesones pesados. Para ello hemos utilizado dos modelos de desintegracion, el modelo 3P0 y un modelo microscopico. Hemos usado la aproximacion QCDME para calcular transiciones OZI-suprimidas entre estados vector del charmonio y tambien del botomonio. Hemos llevado a cabo un estudio de las desintegraciones semileptonicas de los mesones B y B_{s} yendo a mesones encantados y encantados-extranos, respectivamente, y que estan orbitalmente excitados. El analisis de las desintegraciones no leptonicas del meson B en canales D^{(*)}D_{sJ} tambien se incluye en este trabajo. Se mencionan a continuacion los resultados mas relevantes. La nueva asignacion de la resonancia \psi(4415) como un estado en onda-D dejando el estado 4S al meson X(4360). La dependencia con la escala del parametro libre \gamma del modelo 3P0. La descripcion del meson D_{s1}(2536) como un estado j_{q}=3/2 que explica simultaneamente todas sus propiedades; [EN] An exhaustive study of heavy meson properties within a nonrelativistic constituent quark model has been presented in this dissertation. Within the heavy quark sector, we have focused on the spectroscopy and on the electromagnetic, strong and weak decays. The description of the approaches used and the discussion of our results, comparing them with the experimental data and also with the results coming from different theoretical approaches, can be followed along the work. A quite reasonable global description of the heavy meson spectra has been reached. Some tentative assignments of the XYZ mesons has been done explaining other properties of the assigned states. Certain modifications to the model have been suggested. The inclusion of one-loop QCD corrections to the spin-dependent terms of the OGE has served to explain the lower mass of the D_{s0}^{*}(2317) meson as a canonical c\bar{s}…