A search for ultra-high-energy photons at the Pierre Auger Observatory exploiting air-shower universality
Creators: name: Collaboration, Pierre Auger
name: Savina, Pierpaolo
name: Abreu, Pedro
name: Aglietta, Marco
name: Albury, Justin M.
name: Allekotte, Ingomar
name: Almela, Alejandro
name: Alvarez-Muniz, Jaime
name: Alves Batista, Rafael
name: Anastasi, Gioacchino Alex
name: Anchordoqui, Luis A.
name: Andrada, Belén
name: Andringa, Sofia
name: Aramo, Carla
name: Araújo Ferreira, Paulo Ricardo
name: Arteaga Velazquez, Juan Carlos
name: Asorey, Hernán Gonzalo
name: Assis, Pedro
name: Avila, Gualberto
name: Badescu, Alina Mihaela
name: Bakalova, Alena
name: Balaceanu, Alexandru
name: Barbato, Felicia
name: Barreira Luz, Ricardo Jorge
name: Becker, Karl-Heinz
name: Bellido, Jose A.
name: Berat, Corinne
name: Bertaina, Mario Edoardo
name: Bertou, Xavier
name: Biermann, Peter L.
name: Binet, Virginia
name: Bismark, Kathrin
name: Bister, Teresa
name: Biteau, Jonathan
name: Blazek, Jiri
name: Bleve, Carla
name: Bohacova, Martina
name: Boncioli, Denise
name: Bonifazi, Carla
name: Bonneau Arbeletche, Luan
name: Borodai, Nataliia
name: Botti, Ana Martina
name: Brack, Jeffrey
name: Bretz, Thomas
name: Brichetto Orchera, P. Gabriel
name: Briechle, Florian Lukas
name: Buchholz, Peter
name: Bueno, Antonio
name: Buitink, Stijn
name: Buscemi, Mario
name: Büsken, Max
name: Caballero-Mora, Karen S.
name: Caccianiga, Lorenzo
name: Canfora, Fabrizia
name: Caracas, Ioana
name: Carceller, Juan Miguel
name: Caruso, Rossella
name: Castellina, Antonella
name: Catalani, Fernando
name: Cataldi, Gabriella
name: Cazon, Lorenzo
name: Cerda, Marcos
name: Chinellato, Jose Augusto
name: Chudoba, Jiri
name: Chytka, Ladislav
name: Clay, Roger W.
name: Cobos Cerutti, Agustín
name: Colalillo, Roberta
name: Coleman, Alan
name: Coluccia, Maria Rita
name: Conceição, Rúben
name: Condorelli, Antonio
name: Consolati, Giovanni
name: Contreras, Fernando
name: Convenga, Fabio
name: Correia Dos Santos, Diego
name: Covault, Corbin
name: Dasso, Sergio
name: Daumiller, Kai
name: Dawson, Bruce R.
name: Day, Jarryd A.
name: Almeida, Rogerio M. De
name: Jesús, Joaquín De
name: Jong, Sijbrand J. De
name: De Mauro, Giuseppe
name: Mello Neto, João De
name: De Mitri, Ivan
name: Oliveira, Jaime De
name: Oliveira Franco, Danelise De
name: Palma, Francesco De
name: Souza, Vitor De
name: De Vito, Emanuele
name: Río, Mariano Del
name: Deligny, Olivier
name: Deval, Luca
name: Matteo, Armando Di
name: Dobrigkeit, Carola
name: D'Olivo, Juan Carlos
name: Domingues Mendes, Luis Miguel
name: Anjos, Rita Dos
name: Santos, Diego Dos
name: Dova, Maria Teresa
name: Ebr, Jan
name: Engel, Ralph
name: Epicoco, Italo
name: Erdmann, Martin
name: Escobar, Carlos O.
name: Etchegoyen, Alberto
name: Falcke, Heino
name: Farmer, John
name: Farrar, Glennys R.
name: Fauth, Anderson
name: Fazzini, Norberto
name: Feldbusch, Fridtjof
name: Fenu, Francesco
name: Fick, Brian
name: Figueira, Juan Manuel
name: Filipcic, Andrej
name: Fitoussi, Thomas
name: Fodran, Tomáš
name: Freire, Martín Miguel
name: Fujii, Toshihiro
name: Fuster, Alan
name: Galea, Cristina
name: Galelli, Claudio
name: García, Beatriz
name: García Vegas, Adrianna Luz
name: Gemmeke, Hartmut
name: Gesualdi, Flavia
name: Gherghel-Lascu, Alexandru
name: Ghia, Piera Luisa
name: GIACCARI, Ugo
name: Giammarchi, Marco
name: Glombitza, Jonas
name: Gobbi, Fabian
name: Gollan, Fernando
name: Golup, Geraldina
name: Gómez Berisso, Mariano
name: Gómez Vitale, Primo F.
name: Gongora, Juan Pablo
name: González, Juan Manuel
name: Gonzalez, Nicolas Martin
name: Goos, Isabel
name: Gora, Dariusz
name: Gorgi, Alessio
name: Gottowik, Marvin
name: Grubb, Trent D.
name: Guarino, Fausto
name: Guedes, Germano
name: Guido, Eleonora
name: Hahn, Steffen
name: Hamal, Petr
name: Hampel, Matías Rolf
name: Hansen, Patricia María
name: Harari, Diego
name: Harvey, Violet M.
name: Haungs, Andreas
name: Hebbeker, Thomas
name: Heck, Dieter
name: Hill, Gary C.
name: Hojvat, Carlos
name: Hörandel, Jörg
name: Horvath, Pavel
name: Hrabovsky, Miroslav
name: Huege, Tim
name: Insolia, Antonio
name: Isar, Paula Gina
name: Janecek, Petr
name: Johnsen, Jeffrey A.
name: Juryšek, Jakub
name: Kääpä, Alex
name: Kampert, Karl-Heinz
name: Karastathis, Nikolaos
name: Keilhauer, Bianca
name: Kemp, Julian
name: Khakurdikar, Abha
name: Kizakke Covilakam, Varada Varma
name: Klages, Hans
name: Kleifges, Matthias
name: Kleinfeller, Jonny
name: Köpke, Marcel
name: Kunka, Norbert
name: Lago, Bruno L.
name: Lang, Rodrigo Guedes
name: Langner, Niklas
name: Leigui De Oliveira, Marcelo Augusto
name: Lenok, Vladimir
name: Letessier-Selvon, Antoine
name: Lhenry-Yvon, Isabelle
name: Lo Presti, Domenico
name: LOPES, Luis
name: López, Rebeca
name: Lu, Lu
name: Luce, Quentin
name: Lundquist, Jon Paul
name: Machado Payeras, Allan
name: Mancarella, Giovanni
name: Mandat, Dusan
name: Manning, Bradley C.
name: Manshanden, Julien
name: Mantsch, Paul
name: Marafico, Sullivan
name: Mariazzi, Analisa
name: Maris, Ioana Codrina
name: Marsella, Giovanni
name: Martello, Daniele
name: Martinelli, Sara
name: Martínez Bravo, Oscar
name: Mastrodicasa, Massimo
name: Mathes, Hermann-Josef
name: Matthews, James
name: Matthiae, Giorgio
name: Mayotte, Eric
name: Mazur, Peter
name: Medina-Tanco, Gustavo
name: Melo, Diego
name: Menshikov, Alexander
name: Merenda, Kevin-Druis
name: Michal, Stanislav
name: Micheletti, Maria Isabel
name: Miramonti, Lino
name: Mollerach, Silvia
name: Montanet, François
name: Morello, Carlo
name: Mostafa, Miguel
name: Müller, Ana L.
name: Muller, Marcio Aparecido
name: Mulrey, Katharine
name: Mussa, Roberto
name: Muzio, Marco Stein
name: Namasaka, Wilson M.
name: Nasr-Esfahani, Alina
name: Nellen, Lukas
name: Niculescu-Oglinzanu, Mihai
name: Niechciol, Marcus
name: Nitz, Dave
name: Nosek, Dalibor
name: Novotný, Vladimír
name: Nozka, Libor
name: Nucita, Achille
name: Nunez, Luis A.
name: Palatka, Miroslav
name: Pallotta, Juan
name: Papenbreer, Philipp
name: Parente, Gonzalo
name: Parra, Alejandra
name: Pawlowsky, Jannis
name: Pech, Miroslav
name: Pedreira, Francisco
name: Pękala, Jan
name: Pelayo, Rodrigo
name: Peña-Rodríguez, Jesús
name: Pereira Martins, Edyvania Emily
name: Perez Armand, Johnnier
name: Pérez Bertolli, Carmina
name: Perlin, Matías
name: Perrone, Lorenzo
name: Petrera, Sergio
name: Pierog, Tanguy
name: Pimenta, Mário
name: Pirronello, Valerio
name: Platino, Manuel
name: Pont, Bjarni
name: Pothast, Mart
name: Privitera, Paolo
name: Prouza, Michael
name: Puyleart, Andrew
name: Querchfeld, Sven
name: Rautenberg, Julian
name: Ravignani, Diego
name: Reininghaus, Maximilian
name: Ridky, Jan
name: Riehn, Felix
name: Risse, Markus
name: Rizi, Vincenzo
name: Rodrigues De Carvalho, Washington
name: Rodriguez Rojo, Jorge Rubén
name: Roncoroni, Matías J.
name: Rossoni, Simone
name: Roth, Markus
name: Roulet, Esteban
name: Rovero, Adrian
name: Ruehl, Philip
name: Saftoiu, Alexandra
name: Salamida, Francesco
name: Salazar, Humberto Ibarguen
name: Salina, Gaetano
name: Sanabria Gomez, Jose
name: Sánchez, Federico Andrés
name: Santos, Edivaldo Moura
name: Santos, Eva
name: Sarazin, Fred
name: Sarmento, Raul
name: Sarmiento-Cano, Christian
name: Sato, Ricardo
name: Schäfer, Christoph M.
name: Scherini, Viviana
name: Schieler, Harald
name: Schimassek, Martin
name: Schimp, Michael
name: Schlüter, Felix
name: Schmidt, David
name: Scholten, Olaf
name: Schovanek, Petr
name: Schröder, Frank G.
name: Schröder, Sonja
name: Schulte, Josina
name: Sciutto, Sergio
name: Scornavacche, Marina
name: Segreto, Alberto
name: Sehgal, Srijan
name: Shellard, Ronald C.
name: Sigl, Guenter
name: Silli, Gaia
name: Sima, Octavian
name: Smida, Radomir
name: Sommers, Paul
name: Soriano, Jorge F.
name: Souchard, Julien
name: Squartini, Ruben
name: Stadelmaier, Maximilian
name: Stanca, Denis
name: Stanič, Samo
name: Stasielak, Jaroslaw
name: Stassi, Patrick
name: Streich, Alexander
name: Suárez-Durán, Mauricio
name: Sudholz, Tristan
name: Suomijarvi, Tiina
name: Supanitsky, A. Daniel
name: Szadkowski, Zbigniew
name: Tapia, Alex
name: Taricco, Carla
name: Timmermans, Charles
name: Tkachenko, Olena
name: Tobiska, Petr
name: Todero Peixoto, Carlos J.
name: Tomé, Bernardo
name: Torrès, Zoé
name: Travaini, Andres
name: Travnicek, Petr
name: Trimarelli, Caterina
name: Tueros, Matias
name: Ulrich, Ralf
name: Unger, Michael
name: Vaclavek, Lukáš
name: Vacula, Martin
name: Valdés Galicia, Jose F.
name: Valore, Laura
name: Varela, Enrique
name: Vásquez-Ramírez, Adriana
name: Veberic, Darko
name: Ventura, Cynthia
name: Vergara Quispe, Indira D.
name: Verzi, Valerio
name: Vicha, Jakub
name: Vink, Jacco
name: Vorobiov, Serguei
name: Wahlberg, Hernan
name: Watanabe, Clara Keiko Oliveira
name: Watson, Alan
name: Weber, Marc
name: Weindl, Andreas
name: Wiencke, Lawrence
name: Wilczyński, Henryk
name: Wirtz, Marcus
name: Wittkowski, David
name: Wundheiler, Brian
name: Yushkov, Alexey
name: Zapparrata, Orazio
name: Zas, Enrique
name: Zavrtanik, Danilo
name: Zavrtanik, Marko
name: Zehrer, Lukas
Publisher: name: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)
Year: 2022

description: The Pierre Auger Observatory is the most sensitive detector to primary photons with energies above ∼0.2 EeV. It measures extensive air showers using a hybrid technique that combines a fluorescence detector (FD) with a ground array of particle detectors (SD). The signatures of a photon-induced air shower are a larger atmospheric depth at the shower maximum (X$_{max}$) and a steeper lateral distribution function, along with a lower number of muons with respect to the bulk of hadron-induced background. Using observables measured by the FD and SD, three photon searches in different energy bands are performed. In particular, between threshold energies of 1-10 EeV, a new analysis technique has been developed by combining the FD-based measurement of X$_{max}$ with the SD signal through a parameter related to its muon content, derived from the universality of the air showers. This technique has led to a better photon/hadron separation and, consequently, to a higher search sensitivity, resulting in a tighter upper limit than before. The outcome of this new analysis is presented here, along with previous results in the energy ranges below 1 EeV and above 10 EeV. From the data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory in about 15 years of operation, the most stringent constraints on the fraction of photons in the cosmic flux are set over almost three decades in energy.