Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1770789 Astroparticle Physics 2013 13 Pages PDF
Abstract

A measurement of the absolute fluorescence yield of the 337 nm nitrogen band, relevant to ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) detectors, is reported. Two independent calibrations of the fluorescence emission induced by a 120 GeV proton beam were employed: Cherenkov light from the beam particle and calibrated light from a nitrogen laser. The fluorescence yield in air at a pressure of 1013 hPa and temperature of 293 K was found to be Y337=5.61±0.06stat±0.22systY337=5.61±0.06stat±0.22syst photons/MeV. When compared to the fluorescence yield currently used by UHECR experiments, this measurement improves the uncertainty by a factor of three, and has a significant impact on the determination of the energy scale of the cosmic ray spectrum.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Physics and Astronomy Astronomy and Astrophysics
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