Date of Award
2022
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Physics (PhD)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Physics
Advisor 1
Brian Fick
Committee Member 1
David Nitz
Committee Member 2
Petra Huentemeyer
Committee Member 3
Simon Carn
Abstract
Anomalous extensive air showers have yet to be detected by cosmic ray observatories. Fluorescence detectors provide a way to view the air showers created by cosmic rays with primary energies reaching up to hundreds of EeV . The resulting air showers produced by these highly energetic collisions can contain features that deviate from average air showers. Detection of these anomalous events may provide information into unknown regions of particle physics, and place constraints on cross-sectional interaction lengths of protons. In this dissertation, I propose measurements of extensive air shower profiles that are used in a machine learning pipeline to distinguish a typical shower from an anomalous shower. Finally, constraints on yearly detection of anomalous events using the machine learning pipeline are given based on EPOS-LHCand QGSJET-II simulations for the Pierre Auger Observatory FD.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Puyleart, Andrew, "SEARCHING FOR ANOMALOUS EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS USING THE PIERRE AUGER OBSERVATORY FLUORESCENCE DETECTOR", Open Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2022.
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