Preliminary results of the AMIGA engineering array at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Abstract

The Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array (AMIGA) aims to both extend the detection range of the Pierre Auger Observatory down to energies $\sim 10^{16.5}~\mathrm{eV}$ and to measure the muon content of extensive air showers. To accomplish these goals, its detection system is composed of an array of coupled water-Cherenkov and scintillation detectors deployed in a graded triangular grid of 433 and 750\,m spacings. At each position, the scintillation detector is buried $2.3~\mathrm{m}$ deep so as to shield it from the air shower electromagnetic component and thus only measure the muon component. These muon detectors have $30~\mathrm{m^2}$ area split into modules, each of them highly segmented in 64 plastic-scintillator strips with an embedded wavelength-shifter optical fiber to transport light to an optical sensor located at the center of the module. During the engineering array phase (finished in November 2017) two module areas ($5~\mathrm{m^2}$ and $10~\mathrm{m^2}$) and two optical sensors (photo-multiplier tubes and silicon-photomultipliers) were tested. In this work, we present the final performance of the muon detectors equipped with silicon-photomultipliers which were thereafter selected as the baseline design for the AMIGA production phase. Analyses and results are based both on laboratory and field measurements.