TY  - JOUR
AU  - Pierre Auger Collaboration (Abraham, J. et al
AU  - Pastor, S.
PY  - 2010
DA  - 2010//
TI  - Measurement of the Depth of Maximum of Extensive Air Showers above 10(18) eV
T2  - Phys. Rev. Lett.
JO  - Physical Review Letters
SP  - 091101
EP  - 7pp
VL  - 104
IS  - 9
PB  - Amer Physical Soc
AB  - We describe the measurement of the depth of maximum, X-max, of the longitudinal development of air showers induced by cosmic rays. Almost 4000 events above 10(18) eV observed by the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory in coincidence with at least one surface detector station are selected for the analysis. The average shower maximum was found to evolve with energy at a rate of (106 +/- 35-21) g/cm(2)/decade below 10(18.24) +/- (0.05) eV, and d24 +/- 3 g/cm(2)/ecade above this energy. The measured shower-to-shower fluctuations decrease from about 55 to 26 g/cm(2). The interpretation of these results in terms of the cosmic ray mass composition is briefly discussed.
SN  - 0031-9007
UR  - http://arXiv.org/abs/1002.0699
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.091101
DO  - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.091101
LA  - English
N1  - ISI:000275252500006
ID  - PierreAugerCollaborationAbraham+Pastor2010
ER  -