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RevMexAA (Serie de Conferencias), 44, 107–107 (2014)

THE PAS (POLO DE ASTRONOMIA SOCIAL) PROJECT

H. Asorey1,2 and L. A. Nunez1, for the PAS Collaboration

The PAS Project has two main objectives:

to build a World class centre in astroparticle

physics and related sciences, and at the same

time, to become a permanent link between

Science and Society.

Due to its geographic characteristics, the AndeanParamo located near Berlın, Colombia (+7.13 N,−72.9 W, 3450 m a.s.l.), is an excellent location tobuild an array of particle detectors to study cosmicrays in a wide energy range, including solar activitymodulation of cosmic rays, gamma astronomy, andthe high energy region of the cosmic rays spectrum.

This facility will be operated by an interdisci-plinary group of researchers closely related to theLAGO (Large Aperture Gamma Ray Burst Observa-tory) international collaboration.

The design of the detector array is based onCorsika air showers and Geant4-based detector re-sponse simulations, and deeply supported by the ex-periences of previous arrays of WCD, such as thePierre Auger Observatory. The proposed design ofthis array will allow to implement two different mea-surement modes: the counting mode and the showermode. In the counting mode, the variations in therecorded flux of secondary particles at detector levelcan be correlated with transient phenomena, suchas the solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays orthe arrival of the highest energy component of anenergetic GRB, and even with long term flux mod-ulations related for example with the solar activitycycle. In the shower mode, in contrast, we will lookfor time-space correlated signals in different detec-tors of the array. In this way, it will be possibleto determine the main parameters that characterizethe extensive air shower (EAS) produced by the in-teraction of a single high-energy cosmic ray with theatmosphere. The size of the array and the increasingspacing between detectors will allow to complementpresent measurements in the so called knee region ofthe cosmic ray energy spectrum (E ∼ 1015 eV) andbeyond, as shown in Figure 1.

Our other objective will be reached by the in-

1Escuela de Fısica, Universidad Industrial de Santander,Bucaramanga, Colombia (hasorey@uis.edu.co).

2Laboratorio de Deteccion de Partıculas y Radiacion,Centro Atomico Bariloche, Comision Nacional de EnergıaAtomica, San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina.

Fig. 1. The cosmic rays spectrum, multiplied by E2 to

emphasize the spectral features, as measured by different

experiments and observatories.

stallation of three buildings: one 12 m hemispher-ical dome, the so called “Society” dome, will har-bor a digital Planetarium and Convention and DataVisualization Center with capacity for one hundredpeople; the second dome, the “Science” dome, willhosts labs and offices all the scientific activities anda 20 inches optical fully automatized telescope foroutreach activities and astronomical research at theParamos. A first sketch of the design of this facili-ties is shown in Figure 2. The third building is theone that completes our concept, where an interactivevisualization wall and roof will reproduce differentanimations and simulations on different science top-ics: cosmology, astronomy and astrophysics, parti-cle physics, planetary science, biology, genetics, anda very long etcetera. This is the “Science tunnel”,which will be the place where a true link betweenscience and society shall be established.

Fig. 2. The PAS project concept: the “Science dome”,

the “Society dome” and the “tunnel of Science” estab-

lishing a bridge, a link, between Science and Society.

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