Bachelor Thesis in UHECR detection and the JEM-EUSO mission

Abstract: The interest in high-energy astrophysics and to venture beyond the standard model has driven theoretical and experimental physicists around the world to collaborate and buildthe necessary instrumentation to test out all the different theories in particle physics. Energies up to 14 TeV have been thoroughly investigated so far by colliding protons in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Cosmic ray maps showed us the existence of even higher energies coming from outer space. What is the nature of such particles, and why do they accelerate to as much as 1020 eV? The study of Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) is a new and active research area where physicists hope to find the sources of such high-energy particles and confirm already existing theories. This thesis discusses the detections of UHECR, and more specifically the space approach. The ongoing project JEM-EUSO is planned to be launched in 2018 by the Japanese heavy liftrocket H2B, and conveyed to the International Space Station (ISS), where it is thought to gather more data than what already have been obtained all the previous years from the earth’s surface. The detection of UHECR occurs through the "atmospheric detector", where an incoming particle makes a shower of secondary particles in the atmosphere called Extensive Air Shower (EAS) upon contact. This shower of particles yields both flourenscence light and Cherenkov light. The problem at hand is to figure out the amount and distribution of the photons created, and how many of these photons actually will reach the detectors of the JEM-EUSO up on the ISS.