Design and initial performance of the prototype for the BEACON instrument for detection of ultrahigh energy particles

Southall, Daniel; Deaconu, C.; Oberla, E.; Zeolla, A.; Álvarez-Muñiz, J.; Cummings, Austin; Curtis-Ginsberg, Zachary; Hendrick, A.; Hughes, K.; Krebs, Ryan; Ludwig, Andrew; Mulrey, K.; Prohira, S.; Carvalho, W. Rodrigues de; Rodriguez, Andres; Romero-Wolf, Andrés; Schoorlemmer, H.; Vieregg, A. G.; Wissel, S.; Zas, E.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2022.167889

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…BEACON: A Radio Detector for Earth-Skimming Tau Neutrinos The antenna construction, DAQ, and trigger implementation are described in greater detail in [7]. One goal of the prototype is to demonstrate the capability of triggering on impulsive signals using the interferometric trigger a noise environment like California.…”

Section: Pos(arena2022)023mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These sources arrive with time differences corresponding to multiples of 1/(60 Hz) and are thus associated with discharges from the US power grid. An algorithm, described in detail in [7], was developed to cut out these background events. The last major category of background events is reflections off airplanes.…”

Section: Pos(arena2022)023mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4, and restricts the search to azimuths at which the prototype is most sensitive. A series of cuts, described in detail in [7], were then preformed to eliminate any non-impulsive, weak, or otherwise anomalous events. The remaining 5,440 events were then inspected by hand.…”

Section: Pos(arena2022)023mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON): A Radio Detector for Earth-Skimming Tau Neutrinos

Zeolla¹,

Álvarez-Muñiz²,

Cummings³

et al. 2023

Proceedings of 9th International Workshop on Acoustic and Radio EeV Neutrino Detection Activities — PoS(ARENA2022)

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When ultrahigh energy tau neutrinos skim the Earth, they can generate tau leptons that then decay in the atmosphere, forming upgoing extensive air showers. The Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON) is a novel detector concept that utilizes a mountaintop radio interferometer to search for the radio emission due to these extensive air showers. The prototype, located at the White Mountain Research Station in California, consists of 4 custom crossed-dipole antennas operating in the 30-80 MHz range and uses a directional interferometric trigger to achieve reduced thresholds and background rejection. The prototype will first be used to detect extensive air showers from down-going cosmic rays to validate the detector model. In this talk, we give an overview of the BEACON concept and the status of its prototype. We also discuss the ongoing cosmic ray search which utilizes both data analysis and simulation.

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Section: Pos(arena2022)023mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pos(arena2022)023mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON): A Radio Detector for Earth-Skimming Tau Neutrinos

Zeolla¹,

Álvarez-Muñiz²,

Cummings³

et al. 2023

Proceedings of 9th International Workshop on Acoustic and Radio EeV Neutrino Detection Activities — PoS(ARENA2022)

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“…This is due to the fact that at low frequencies, the Fraunhofer limit, and consequently, the cell sizes we have chosen, are not as strict, following equation 3. This indicates that for modelling radio experiments which target lower frequency bands (such as AERA [9] or BEACON [10]), the approach we have defined here can be somewhat relaxed, and cell sizes can be less optimized, allowing for fast computations.…”

Section: Practical and Accurate Calculations Of Radio Emission From Easmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical and accurate calculations of radio emission from Extensive Air Showers

Carvalho¹,

Cummings²,

Ludwig³

et al. 2023

Proceedings of 9th International Workshop on Acoustic and Radio EeV Neutrino Detection Activities — PoS(ARENA2022)

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We present a novel semi-analytical treatment of the radio emission of air showers that is able to reproduce the results of full ZHAireS simulations, in theory at a fraction of the computational cost. Traditionally, the contribution to the vector potential of every single particle track in the shower is calculated separately. Instead, in our approach we divide the air shower into 4-D spacetime volumes, so that the contribution of the volume needs to be calculated only once, based on the average particle track inside it. This almost amounts to a macroscopic treatment of the shower, but retaining the precision of the successful microscopic approach.The size of the 4-D spacetime volumes is chosen so that the traditional vector potential expression can be further simplified, as many of its terms can be taken to be the same for the whole volume. Computationally expensive terms, such as the the effective refractive index from the track to the observer, can then be calculated only once, making it possible to obtain the precise radio emission at a fraction of the cost. This approach also allows us to perform more precise calculations that would otherwise be too expensive to apply on a track-by-track basis. These could include a more detailed treatment of atmospheric effects for near horizontal showers and high altitude detectors, such as balloons and satellites.

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“…Recently, several radio experiments (AERA, CODALEMA, TREND, LOFAR) [1,2] have demonstrated that the information contained in the radio signal of vertical air showers allows one to perform an accurate reconstruction of the primary particle parameters (nature, arrival direction, energy) [3]. The next generation of extended radio arrays (GRAND, BEACON, AugerPrime radio upgrade) [4][5][6] focuses on very inclined extensive air showers (EAS) that leave large radio footprints on the ground. Thanks to this specific feature, one can deploy detectors over gigantic arrays with a sparse density to provide large detector effective area at affordable costs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle content of very inclined air showers for radio signal modeling

Guelfand,

Chiche,

Kotera

et al. 2024

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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The reconstruction of very inclined air showers is a new challenge for next-generation radio experiments such as the AugerPrime radio upgrade, BEACON, and GRAND, which focus on the detection of ultra high energy particles. To tackle this, we study the electromagnetic particle content of very inclined air showers, which has scarcely been studied so far. Using the simulation tools CORSIKA and CoREAS, and analytical modeling, we explore the energy range of the particles that contribute most to the radio emission, quantify their lateral extent, and estimate the atmospheric depth at which the radio emission is strongest. We find that the spatial distribution of the electromagnetic component in very inclined air showers has characteristic features that could lead to clear signatures in the radio signal, and hence impact the reconstruction strategies of next-generation radio-detection experiments.

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Design and initial performance of the prototype for the BEACON instrument for detection of ultrahigh energy particles

Cited by 13 publications

References 59 publications

The Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON): A Radio Detector for Earth-Skimming Tau Neutrinos

The Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON): A Radio Detector for Earth-Skimming Tau Neutrinos

Practical and accurate calculations of radio emission from Extensive Air Showers

Particle content of very inclined air showers for radio signal modeling

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