• B.A., 1967, University of Chicago
• Ph.D. 1973, University of Illinois, Urbana

Research Interests:

Professor Sokolsky is interested in Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray Physics. He is involved with the High Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray Observatory located at Dugway Proving Grounds to study the nature of the highest energy cosmic rays. While this experiment is ending, a new collaboration with groups from Japan, led by the University of Tokyo, is building an experiment called the Telescope Array in Millard County, Utah. This new experiment will increase the sensitivity to the highest energy cosmic rays tenfold. Specific questions being studied by him and the HiRes and Telescope Array group include the cosmic ray spectrum, composition and anisotropy, and the search for point sources of neutral cosmic rays as well as astrophysical neutrinos. Of related interest is the physics of hadronic interactions at energies above those which are reached by accelerators. The HiRes detectors use atmospheric fluorescence, a technique pioneered in Utah by the Fly’s Eye experiment, to image the development of cosmic ray cascades in the atmosphere while the Telescope array adds additional ground detectors in the form of plastic scintillators. Professor Sokolsky is also involved in the SalSa proposal to search for extra-atmospheric neutrinos by studying radio emission from their interactions in large salt bodies.

Selected Recent Publications

• "Detection of a Cosmic Ray with Measured Energy Well Beyond the Expected Spectral Cutoff Due to Microwave Radiation" (with D.J. Bird, et al.), Ap. J. 441, 144(1995).
• "Introduction to Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Ray Physics" Westview Press Advanced Book Program, 2004.
• "Observation of the Ankle and Evidence for a High-Energy Break in the Cosmic Ray Spectrum" with R. U. Abassi et al., Phys. Letters B 619 (2005), p. 271.
• “Search for Cross-Correlations of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays With BL Lacertae Objects" with R. U. Abassi et al, Astrophysical Journal 636, 2006, p 680-684.