Measurement of air and nitrogen fluorescence light yields induced by electron beam for UHECR experiments

Most of the Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) experiments and projects (HiRes, AUGER, TA, EUSO, TUS, etc.) use air fluorescence to detect and measure extensive air showers (EAS). The precise knowledge of the Fluorescence Light Yield (FLY) is of paramount importance for the reconstruction of UHECR. The MACFLY—Measurement of Air Cherenkov and Fluorescence Light Yield—experiment has been designed to perform such FLY measurements. In this paper we will present the results of FLY in the 290–440 nm wavelength range for dry air and pure nitrogen, both excited by electrons with energy of 1.5 MeV, 20 GeV and 50 GeV. The experiment uses a 90Sr radioactive source for low energy measurement and a CERN SPS e− beam for high energy. We find that the FLY is proportional to the deposited energy (Ed) in the gas and we show that the air fluorescence properties remain constant independently of the electron energy. At the reference point: atmospheric dry air at 1013 hPa and 23 °C, the ratio FLY/Ed = 17.6 photon/MeV with a systematic error of 13.2%.