Auger showers detection at high altitudes


SINP scientists took part in 4th International Meeting on Auger showers detection at high altitudes, which this year took place in Napoli and joined over 50 participants from Italy, China, USA, France and Russia. All the details are presented in the interview with the Head of the Department of Superhigh energies DSc. Leonid Kuzmichev below.

- Please, tell us abot the purpose of your trip.

- First of all we wanted to present the results of the studies of superhigh energy cosmic rays obtained during our experiment Tunka-133. The experimental facility detects cosmic rays by means of Cherenkov radiation produced by charged particles of Auger showers. Currently Tunka-133 is the biggest facility of such type in the world. Besides, we wanted to know what progress in this field of studies our colleagues had achieved.


- What facilities for detection of Auger showers at high altitudes did you find the most interesting among those presented at the Meeting?

- In my opinion, development of HAWC facility in Mexico and LAWCA facility in China which will be opened in the nearest future are the most interesting among the high-mountain facilities. As for more long perspective I was interested in the development of a huge complex facility LHAASO in Tibet. The main advantage of the two first projects (HAWK and LAWCA) is their fast realization. In 2014 they will be able to make observations of the whole Northern hemisphere, including search for gamma-sources in the range of dozens of TeV. Concerning LHAASO its very high sensibility will provide an opportunity for detailed studies of both local gamma-sources and cosmic rays within wide range of energy.


- And what projects of SINP MSU got interest of your foreign colleagues?

- Currently we actively cooperate with foreign colleagues within the frames of cosmic rays studies in he experiment at Tunka-133. New international collaboration was formed for the development of wide-angle Cherenkov gamma-observatory Tunka-HiSCORE. By means of this experimental facility we'll look for new local sources of gammas with energy over 20 TeV at high sensibility level.

Foreign scientists are also interested in the results of satellite experiemtns on the studies of the galactic cosmic rays by means of NUCLON detector, which is planned to be launched thies year, and high-aperture detector OLVE, which developmen is only started.

In order to study cosmic rays of ultra-high energy our scientists have also developed a detector TUS which will be assembled onboard the satellite "Mikhailo Lomonosov". Detector KLPVE which is planned onboard of ISS is under development.


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