Dependence of geosynchrotron radio emission on the energy and depth of maximum of cosmic ray showers

Huege, T.; Ulrich, R.; Engel, R.

doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2008.07.003

Cited by 93 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…When radio pulses of air showers are produced by the geomagnetic mechanism only, they can be used as a measure for the energy of the primary particle [26]. This technique becomes unreliable when the pulse height is affected by an atmospheric electric field.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of radio emission from air showers in atmospheric electric fields

Buitink

Huege

Falcke

et al. 2010

Astroparticle Physics

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We study the effect of atmospheric electric fields on the radio pulse emitted by cosmic ray air showers. Under fair weather conditions the dominant part of the radio emission is driven by the geomagnetic field. When the shower charges are accelerated and deflected in an electric field additional radiation is emitted. We simulate this effect with the Monte Carlo code REAS2, using CORSIKA-simulated showers as input. In both codes a routine has been implemented that treats the effect of the electric field on the shower particles. We find that the radio pulse is significantly altered in background fields of the order of ∼ 100 V/cm and higher. Practically, this means that air showers passing through thunderstorms emit radio pulses that are not a reliable measure for the shower energy. Under other weather circumstances significant electric field effects are expected to occur rarely, but nimbostratus clouds can harbor fields that are large enough. In general, the contribution of the electric field to the radio pulse has polarization properties that are different from the geomagnetic pulse. In order to filter out radio pulses that have been affected by electric field effects, radio air shower experiments should keep weather information and perform full polarization measurements of the radio signal.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of radio emission from air showers in atmospheric electric fields

Buitink

Huege

Falcke

et al. 2010

Astroparticle Physics

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“…Digital radio-antenna arrays can measure under almost any con- ditions and would increase the statistics by a factor of roughly 10 [7]. Until now, the sensitivity of radio measurements to the longitudinal air-shower development was predicted by simulations of the radio emission [8], but the experimental proof was still missing. We supply this proof by comparing the mean pseudorapidities of muons measured by KASCADE-Grande with the slope of the radio lateral distribution measured with LOPES [7,9,10], a digital radio-antenna array co-located with KASCADEGrande.…”

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confidence: 99%

Experimental evidence for the sensitivity of the air-shower radio signal to the longitudinal shower development

Apel¹,

Arteaga²,

Bähren³

et al. 2012

Phys. Rev. D

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We observe a correlation between the slope of radio lateral distributions, and the mean muon pseudorapidity of 59 individual cosmic-ray-air-shower events. The radio lateral distributions are measured with LOPES, a digital radio interferometer co-located with the multi-detector-air-shower array KASCADE-Grande, which includes a muon-tracking detector. The result proves experimentally that radio measurements are sensitive to the longitudinal development of cosmic-ray air-showers. This is one of the main prerequisites for using radio arrays for ultra-high-energy particle physics and astrophysics.The investigation of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays works at the frontiers of particle physics as well as astrophysics. Only cosmic rays allow probing particle physics beyond the energy range of man-made accelerators. And only high statistics and accurate measurements of energy, direction and mass of cosmic rays will solve the mystery of their origin, i.e. how natural accelerators achieve energies beyond 10 20 eV (see references [1, 2] for reviews). Since ultra-high-energy cosmic rays are too rare to be measured directly, they can only be measured indirectly by observing extensive air-showers of secondary particles. In particular, the longitudinal development of the airshowers is of interest for the two main physics goals: for particle physics, since the shower development depends on the interactions at ultra-high energies, and for astro- *

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“…The mass sensitivity of the lateral slope has also been predicted by REAS2 [135]. This can be utilized to estimate the primary composition by comparing the slope parameter R 0 of LOPES [47], and REAS3 simulations for proton and iron primaries.…”

Section: Mass Sensitivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A small X max results in a flat radio wavefront, i.e., a small curvature, respectively a large opening angle close to 180 • . This is in principle the same geometrical effect, which also results in a X max sensitivity of the lateral distribution (cf., chapter 7 and reference [135]). …”

Section: Pulse Arrival Time Distributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Instruments and Methods for the Radio Detection of High Energy Cosmic Rays

Schröder¹

2012

Springer Theses

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Instruments and Methods for the Radio Detection of High Energy Cosmic RaysCosmic rays at energies above 10 15 eV cannot be measured directly due to the low flux. Instead, the properties of the primary cosmic ray particles (arrival direction, energy, mass) have to be reconstructed from measurements of secondary particles forming an air shower. For this, digital radio antenna arrays, like LOPES at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), are a relatively new instrument. The radio emission mainly originates from the deflection of secondary air shower electrons and positrons in the Earth's magnetic field. The radio technique aims at achieving a similar quality in the reconstruction of air shower parameters as the established Cherenkov or fluorescence light detection methods, which in contrast to the radio technique are limited to dark, moonless nights.The present studies aim to advance the air shower radio detection in technological aspects and analysis methods. The developments are mainly applied to LOPES, but also provide a useful set of tools, which will soon be applied on the analysis of first AERA measurements. AERA is a next generation digital radio array at the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. Moreover, this thesis reflects the recent progress in the understanding of the radio emission by air showers. The main results of the studies are:• A new method for time calibration with a reference beacon has been developed.It allows a time resolution of ∼ 1 ns even with large antenna arrays. This is necessary for digital radio interferometry which improves the signal-to-noise ratio and the reconstruction accuracy of the primary particle properties. This method is essential for the measurement of cosmic rays with LOPES, and is going to be applied at AERA.• A per-event comparison of lateral distributions measured with LOPES and REAS3 simulations reflects a significantly improved understanding of the radio emission mechanisms. For the first time a Monte Carlo simulation of the radio emission by air showers can in average reproduce measured data. A detailed investigation of systematic effects was performed to accurately reconstruct LOPES lateral distributions. In particular, a method has been developed to appropriately treat the influence of radio noise on measured lateral distributions.• It is shown that a conical radio wavefront fits LOPES measurements and REAS3 simulations better than a spherical wavefront, which up to now has been assumed for LOPES beamforming analyses. Furthermore, the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum X max can be reconstructed by determining the opening angle of the conical wavefront. However, due to the small lateral extension of LOPES of about 200 m and the high radio background at KIT, the measurement uncertainty (∆X max ≈ 200 g/cm 2 ) is too large for a per-event reconstruction of the primary mass. This will improve at AERA, but could not be examined in detail because of a delay in the construction. • Eine neue Methode zur Zeitkalibration mit einen Rerefenzsender (Beaco...

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Dependence of geosynchrotron radio emission on the energy and depth of maximum of cosmic ray showers

Cited by 93 publications

References 27 publications

Simulation of radio emission from air showers in atmospheric electric fields

Simulation of radio emission from air showers in atmospheric electric fields

Experimental evidence for the sensitivity of the air-shower radio signal to the longitudinal shower development

Instruments and Methods for the Radio Detection of High Energy Cosmic Rays

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