Pierre Auger

Rare cosmic ray showers of energy more than 10²⁰ eV have been consistently observed in the past decade. The origin of such extremely high-energy cosmic rays is unknown and a mechanism for their production can not be easily imagined. The Pierre Auger Group is an international coIlaboration of particle physicists and astro-physicists set on investigating these rare phenomena.

The University of Mississippi high-energy physics group participated in the construction of the Pierre Auger Observatory, a 50-square-mile array of surface water Cerenkov detectors and atmospheric fluorescence detectors constructed in the U.S. and Argentina. The first arrays are being constructed near Malarque, Argentina, and soon in the United States. Data taking began in 2001.