Measurement of atmospheric production depths of muons with the pierre auger observatory

The time structure of muons at ground retains valuable information about the longitudinal development of the hadronic component in extensive air showers. Using the signals collected by the surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory it is possible to reconstruct the Muon Production Depth (MPD) distribution. In this work we explore the main features of these reconstructions for zenith angles around 60 ◦ and different energies of the primary particle. From the MPDs we define a new observable, X max , as the depth, along the shower axis, where the maximum number of muons is produced. The potentiality of X max to infer the mass composition of cosmic rays is studied.