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The Pierre Auger Observatory, which is the largest air-shower experiment in the world, offers unprecedented exposure to neutral particles at the highest energies. Since the start of data collection more than 18 years ago, various searches for ultra-high-energy (UHE, E≳1017eV) photons have been performed, either for a diffuse flux of UHE photons, for point sources of UHE photons or for UHE photons associated with transient events such as gravitational wave events. In the present paper, we summarize these searches and review the current results obtained using the wealth of data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory.
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This content will become publicly available on January 1, 2026
The Pierre Auger Observatory open data
Abstract The Pierre Auger Collaboration has embraced the concept of open access to their research data since its foundation, with the aim of giving access to the widest possible community. A gradual process of release began as early as 2007 when 1% of the cosmic-ray data was made public, along with 100% of the space-weather information. In February 2021, a portal was released containing 10% of cosmic-ray data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory from 2004 to 2018, during the first phase of operation of the Observatory. The Open Data Portal includes detailed documentation about the detection and reconstruction procedures, analysis codes that can be easily used and modified and, additionally, visualization tools. Since then, the Portal has been updated and extended. In 2023, a catalog of the highest-energy cosmic-ray events examined in depth has been included. A specific section dedicated to educational use has been developed with the expectation that these data will be explored by a wide and diverse community, including professional and citizen scientists, and used for educational and outreach initiatives. This paper describes the context, the spirit, and the technical implementation of the release of data by the largest cosmic-ray detector ever built and anticipates its future developments.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2111359
- PAR ID:
- 10581116
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- The European Physical Journal C
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The European Physical Journal C
- Volume:
- 85
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1434-6052
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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