Reconstruction of the depth of the shower maximum of air showers with the SD-750 surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory using neural networks

The origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is one of the intriguing mysteries in astroparticle physics. In order to identify their sources, we need precise knowledge of the mass composition of UHECRs. The direct detection of UHECRs is not feasible at energies above 0.1 PeV, necessitating the use of mass-sensitive observables of extended air showers induced by UHECRs interacting with the atmosphere. One way to achieve high statistics for these mass-sensitive observables is to use ground-based detector arrays, such as the Surface Detector (SD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The SD consists of three sub-arrays of independent detector stations arranged in triangular grids with different spacings. Recently, it has been shown that neural networks (NNs) can extract mass-sensitive observables from data taken by the SD-1500, the largest sub-detector of the SD. In this contribution, we demonstrate the feasibility of using NNs to reconstruct a high-level shower observable, the depth of the shower maximum, from data simulated for and observed by the SD-750, the second-largest detector array nested within the SD-1500. A simulation study shows that the SD-750 NN exhibits behavior similar to that of an SD-1500 NN and outperforms the latter in the energy range [1, 10) EeV. Moreover, we show that, after performing a correction and calibration procedure, the predictions of the SD-750 NN are consistent with the measurement of the depth of the shower maximum obtained by the Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory.

Authors

Publication Details

Published
2025-09-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.22323/1.501.0284
Primary Topic
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Reconstruction of the depth of the shower maximum of air showers with the SD-750 surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory using neural networks

Belén Andrada, Zbigniew Szadkowski, Bruno L. Lago, Carla Taricco et al.
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
article

Reconstruction of the depth of the shower maximum of air showers with the SD-750 surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory using neural networks

Belén Andrada, Zbigniew Szadkowski, Bruno L. Lago, Carla Taricco, Giovanni Consolati, Juan Manuel Gonzalez, S. Petrera, Varada Varma Kizakke Covilakam, T. Pierog, G. Sigl, Mateo Fernandez, T. Huege, Nicolas Leal, Carmina Pérez Bertolli, Carlo Salvattore Cruz Sanchez, Frank Schröder, A. Bueno, Gustavo Medina‐Tanco, A. C. Fauth, Enrico Arnone, Enrique Varela, O. Schölten, Olena Tkachenko, Lorenzo Cazon, Pierpaolo Savina, Lukáš Vaclavek, B. R. Dawson, Matteo Conte, A. Haungs, Harm Schoorlemmer, Dalibor Nosek, G. Parente, Paula Gina Isar, Laura Valore, Janning Meinert, Emanuele De Vito, Dušan Mandát, M. Roth, Adila Abdul Halim, Gonzalo Rodriguez Fernandez, Jiří Blažek, Therese Paulsen, Adriel Bartz Mocellin, Berenika Čermáková, S. J. de Jong, V. Rizi, Armando di Matteo, Andres Travaini, Alexey Yushkov, K. Daumiller, A. Insolia, Lorenzo Caccianiga, Darko Veberič, María Isabel Micheletti, A. Segreto, L. Nellen, Felicia Barbato, Viviana Scherini, Gabriela Nicora, Thomas Fitoussi, Katarína Simkova, R. Caruso, I. Allekotte, F. Sarazin, V. Verzi, Luis A. Núñez, Chaitanya Priyadarshi, Fernando Gollan, M. Cristinziani, E. Zas, Clara Keiko Oliveira Watanabe, Roberta Colalillo, L. Miramonti, F. Simon, Juan Carlos D’Olivo, F. Salamida, P. Trávnı́ček, Benjamin Flaggs, P. Hamal, A. D. Supanitsky, Pedro J. Costa, Maximilian Straub, R. Mussa, Camilla Petrucci, Federico Maria Mariani, Fiona H. Ellwanger, A. Castellina, J. Vícha, Jaime Álvarez-Muñiz, Jose F. Valdés Galicia, C. Hojvat, Denise Boncioli, L. Chytka, Martin Vacula, Vladimír Novotný, Miguel A. Martins, F. Guarino, Glennys R. Farrar, M. Gómez Berisso, M. Erdmann, Jarosław Stasielak, H. Falcke, Shima Ujjani Shivashankara, A. Letessier‐Selvon, C. E. Covault, Alex Tapia, P. Abreu, Tobias Schulz, C. Aramo, M. Palatka, I. De Mitri, K. S. Caballero‐Mora, Antonio Franco, Roberto Aloisio, Bjarni Pont, Simone Rossoni, S. Buitink, Petr Tobiška, Juan Ammerman Yebra, Edivaldo Moura Santos, Violet M. Harvey, Achille Nucita, Hermann-Josef Mathes, P. Mantsch, Lawrence Wiencke, Rukije Uzeiroska, Nicolás Martín González, Toshihiro Fujii, Nicolas San Martin, Corinne Bérat, Luis Miguel Domingues Mendes, Zuzana Svozilikova, М. Бертаина, M. Pech, Maximilian Stadelmaier, P. Assis, F. Montanet, Mohit Saharan, T. Hebbeker, M. Mallamaci, Alena Bakalová, Peter L. Biermann, Jan Ebr, Anthony Bwembya, J. A. Chinellato, S. Andringa, Jorge Caraça-Valente, Felix Riehn, Agustín Cobos Cerutti, David Schmidt, Krzysztof Pytel, Adriana Vásquez-Ramírez, R. Conceição, C. Bonifazi, Shefali Negi, Jon Paul Lundquist, Jan Pękala, Edyvânia Emily Pereira Martins, Fridtjof Feldbusch, Josina Schulte, S. Vorobiov, Alexander Novikov, Emanuele Avocone, Primo F. Gómez Vitale, H.O. Klages, H. Wilczyński, Antonio Ambrosone, Pranav Sampathkumar, M. Aglietta, Patricia María Hansen, Lorenzo Perrone, A. Gorgi, F. de Palma, V. de Souza, Esteban Roulet, S. Dasso, Italo Epicoco, Leo Östman, Luan Bonneau Arbeletche, Fabio Convenga, B. Tomé, J. Matthews, Fernando Catalani, Adrian Sedoski, Radomir Šmída, Eva Santos, Joaquín de Jesús, Milton Freitas, M. Pimenta, Niklas Langner, Carmelo Evoli, Matías Rolf Hampel, Jose A. Bellido, Kathrin Bismark, Adrián Rovero, D. Góra, J. Řídký, B. Keilhauer, G. Golup, Stef Verpoest, R. W. Clay, Antonino Del Popolo, Katharine Mulrey, Mario Buscemi, Wilson M. Namasaka, Vincent Pelgrims, Olivier Deligny, Chloé Gaudu, Yago Lema-Capeans, Carmen Merx, Mohsen Pourmohammad Shahvar, Lukas Gülzow, Simon Strähnz, Sergio Cabana-Freire, Alessandro Cermenati, Nikolas Denner, Beatriz de Errico, João Vítor Reginatto Akim, Fedor Tairli, Alex Reuzki, Tim Fehler, Eric William Mayotte, J.R. Hörandel, M. Unger, J. Chudoba, Paolo Privitera, Charles Timmermans, Andreas Weindl, A. De Roeck, Danelise de Oliveira Franco, Brian Wundheiler, Jacco Vink, Gioacchino Alex Anastasi, José Ochoa, Teresa Bister, Tiina Suomijärvi, Marko Zavrtanik, Khoa Nguyen, Alan Watson, K.‐H. Kampert, Luiz Augusto Pereira, Jose Sanabria Gomez, B. Garćıa, Marcus Niechciol, Leonel Morejón, J. Brack, Igor Vaiman, Ralph Engel, Juan Pallotta, Alejandro Almela, Andrej Filipčič, Alberto Etchegoyen, Humberto Ibarguen Salazar, Rita Cassia dos Anjos, Germano Guedes, Analisa Mariazzi, Norbert Kunka, Ezequiel Rodriguez, Luca Deval, Peter Mazur, Marvin Gottowik, Stanislav Michal, Johannes Blümer, Jelena Köhler, Danilo Zavrtanik, Isabelle Lhenry-Yvon, Qader Dorosti, Paul Filip, Carlos J. Todero Peixoto, Federico Andrés Sánchez, Margita Kubátová, Melanie Weitz, Rogerio M. de Almeida, Martina Boháčová, R. Sarmento, Pavel Horváth, G. Marsella, Nataliia Borodai, Cristina Galea, Kévin Almeida Cheminant, Martin Schimassek, H. Schieler, Sergio J Sciutto, Jorge Rubén Rodriguez Rojo, Markus Risse, Daniele Martello, Florian Lukas Briechle, Samo Stanič, Marcelo Augusto Leigui de Oliveira, Ioana Codrina Maris, Giorgio Matthiae, Michael Prouza, Marcos Cerda, Michael Schimp, Piera Luisa Ghia, P. Gabriel Brichetto Orchera, Gaetano Salina, Ruben Squartini, Manuel Platino, Dave Nitz, Brian Fick, Silvia Mollerach, Alan Fuster, Petr Janeček, Virginia Binet, Marina Scornavacche, Alexander Menshikov, C. Dobrigkeit, Juan Carlos Arteaga Velázquez, Indira D. Vergara Quispe, Ricardo Sato, Paul Sommers, Cainã Oliveira, Max Büsken, Gualberto Avila, Marta Bianciotto, Steffen Hahn, A. Săftoiu, L. Lopes, Patrick Stassi, Abha Khakurdikar, Sonja Mayotte, Rodrigo Pelayo, Luis A. Anchordoqui, Fabian Gobbi, Jonathan Biteau, Baobiao Yue, Diego Correia dos Santos, Lorenzo Apollonio, Srijan Sehgal, Miroslav Hrabovský, Joao dos Anjos, Diego Melo, Vlastimil Jílek, Veronika Vašíčková, Alexandra Fernandes, Ugo GIACCARI, J. Rautenberg, Shayoni Panja, Sara Martinelli, Diego Ravignani, Jaime de Oliveira, Libor Nožka, Jannis Pawlowsky, Juan Manuel Figueira, Federico Campuzano, Frederik Krieger, Sven Querchfeld, Matthias Kleifges, Luciana Andrade Dourado, Petr Schovánek, Tomáš Fodran, Matias Jorge Tueros, G. Cataldi, Megha Mogarkar, Jhansi Bhavani Vuta, Eric-Teunis de Boone, Mohamed Ismaiel, Karolina Syrokvas, Matteo Tambone, Pim van Dillen
article en

Abstract

The origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is one of the intriguing mysteries in astroparticle physics. In order to identify their sources, we need precise knowledge of the mass composition of UHECRs. The direct detection of UHECRs is not feasible at energies above 0.1 PeV, necessitating the use of mass-sensitive observables of extended air showers induced by UHECRs interacting with the atmosphere. One way to achieve high statistics for these mass-sensitive observables is to use ground-based detector arrays, such as the Surface Detector (SD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The SD consists of three sub-arrays of independent detector stations arranged in triangular grids with different spacings. Recently, it has been shown that neural networks (NNs) can extract mass-sensitive observables from data taken by the SD-1500, the largest sub-detector of the SD. In this contribution, we demonstrate the feasibility of using NNs to reconstruct a high-level shower observable, the depth of the shower maximum, from data simulated for and observed by the SD-750, the second-largest detector array nested within the SD-1500. A simulation study shows that the SD-750 NN exhibits behavior similar to that of an SD-1500 NN and outperforms the latter in the energy range [1, 10) EeV. Moreover, we show that, after performing a correction and calibration procedure, the predictions of the SD-750 NN are consistent with the measurement of the depth of the shower maximum obtained by the Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory.

Strong, European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy, Grantová Agentura České Republiky, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações, Vlaamse regering, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics, Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica, Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules
Openalex Percentile: Top 89%
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.