Observation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays with the Telescope Array experiment

Abstract

The origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) has been a longstanding mystery. The Telescope Array (TA) is the largest experiment in the northern hemisphere observing UHECR in Utah, USA. It aims to reveal the origin of UHECR by studying the energy spectrum, mass composition and anisotropy of cosmic rays. TA is a hybrid detector comprised of three air fluorescence stations which measure the fluorescence light induced from cosmic ray extensive air showers, and 507 surface scintillator counters which sample charged particles from air showers on the ground. We present the cosmic ray spectrum observed with the TA experiment. We also discuss our results from measurement of the mass composition. In addition, we present the results from the analysis of anisotropy, including the excess of observed events in a region of the northern sky at the highest energy. Finally, we introduce the TAx4 experiment which quadruples TA, and the TA low energy extension (TALE) experiment.