Teaching
PH326 Advanced Lab II Spring
Research Activities
High Energy Cosmic Rays: Pierre
Auger Observatory
High Energy Cosmic Rays: Extreme Universe Space Observatory Super Pressure Balloon Mission
Laser Test Beam for Cosmic Ray Observatories
Various research tools
Some Past Projects:
Calibration by RaYleigh Scattering (C-RAYS)
High Resolution Fly's Eye
Selected Publications
“Atmospheric Super Test Beam for the Pierre Auger Observatory”, L. Wiencke for the Pierre Auger Collaboration and A. Botts, C. Allan, M. Calhoun, B. Carande, M. Coco, J. Claus, L. Emmert, S. Esquibel, . Hamilton, T.J. Heid, F. Honecker, M. Iarlori, S. Morgan, S. Robinson, D. Starbuck, J. Sherman, M. Waken, and O. Wolf, Proc 32nd International Cosmic Ray Conference (August, 2011). “The
exposure of the hybrid detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory”,
The Pierre Auger Collaboration, Astroparticle Physics 34 368-381 (2011).
“Measurement of the Depth of Maximum of Extensive Air Showers above 1018 eV”,The Pierre Auger Collaboration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 091101 (2010).
"The Fluorescence Detector of
the Pierre Auger Observatory", The Pierre Auger Collaboration,
NIMA, 620 p227 (2010).
“A
study of the effect of
molecular and aerosol conditions in the atmosphere on air fluorescence
measurements at the Pierre Auger Observatory”, The Pierre
Auger Collaboration, Astroparticle
Physics 33, 108 (2010).
“Observation
of the suppression of the Flux of
cosmic Rays above 4x1019
eV",The Pierre Auger Collaboration Physics
Review Letters, 101 061101 (2008).
“First Observation of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin Suppression”, R. Abassi et al (The HiRes Collaboration) Physical Review Letters 100 101101 (2008)
1.
"Correlation
of the Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays with Nearby Extragalactic
Objects”, The
Pierre Auger Collaboration (9 November 2007) Science 318
(5852), 938.
“A
measurement of time-averaged aerosol optical depth using
air-showers observed in stereo by HiRes" R. Abbasi, et al.
Astroparticle Physics 25 p93 (2006).
“ The Central Laser Facility at the Pierre Auger Observatory ". B. Fick et al., JINST 1, p11003 (2006).
"A
Fiber-Optic-Based
Calibration System for the High Resolution Fly’s Eye Cosmic
Ray Observatory",
J.H.V. Girard et al., Nucl. Instr. Meth. A460,
278 (2001).
“ Evidence for Changing of Cosmic Ray Composition Between 1017 and 1018 eV from Multicomponent Measurements", T. Abu-Zayyad et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4276 (2000).
“
Radio-Controlled
Xenon Flashers for Atmospheric Monitoring at the HiRes Cosmic Ray
Observatory",
L.R. Wiencke et al., Nucl. Instr. Meth.
A428, 593 (1999).
“
Precise
Measurement of the Lambda0
and Lambda-bar0
Masses and
a Test of CPT
Invariance", E.P.
Hartouni et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 72b,
1322 (1994).
“ Observation of Coulomb Effects in Production of pi+ pi–, p pi–, and K+K– Pairs in pp Collisions at 27.5 GeV/c", L.R. Wiencke et al., Phys. Rev. D46, 3708 (1992).
Patents
"System and method for precise absolute time event generation and capture", J. Smith, J. Thomas, S. Thomas, L. Wiencke US Patent # 7975160 Awarded July 5 2011
The background image shows the M87 galaxy in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. A relativistic jet of particles emanate from the center of M87 which contains a super massive blackhole. At 60 million light-years distant, M87 is one of the small fraction of galaxies within the propagation distance for cosmic-ray nuclei with energies above ~5x1019eV. Active galactic nuclei, of which M87 is an example, are one possible candidate sources of high energy cosmic rays.