The Discovery of Cherenkov Radiation and its use in the detection of extensive air showers

Abstract

Cascades of charged particles are created when high-energy cosmic rays enter the earth's atmosphere: these 'extensive air-showers' are studied to gain information on the energy spectrum, arrival direction distribution and mass composition of the particles above 1014 eV where direct observations using instruments carried by balloons or satellites become impractical. Detection of light in the visible and ultra-violet ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum plays a key role in this work, the two processes involved being the emission of Cherenkov light and the production of fluorescence radiation. In this paper I will outline some of the history of the discovery of the Cherenkov process and describe the use to which it has been put in the study of extensive air-showers at ground level.

To appear in Proceedings of CRIS2010: Cosmic Ray International Seminar on '100 years of Cosmic Rays: from Pioneering Experiments to Physics in Space'

References in corpus (4)

• Measuring extensive air showers with Cherenkov light detectors of the Yakutsk array: The energy spectrum of cosmic rays
• Imaging Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Telescopes
• Air Cherenkov Methods in Cosmic Rays: A Review and Some History
• IceCube Collaboration Contributions to the 2009 International Cosmic Ray Conference

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Light emission is fundamentally tied to the quantum coherence of the emitting particle
• Cosmic Ray Extremely Distributed Observatory
• The development of ground-based Gamma-ray astronomy: a historical overview of the pioneering experiments
• Wide field-of-view Cherenkov telescope for the detection of cosmic rays in coincidence with the Yakutsk extensive air shower array
• Technological Novelties of Ground-Based Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Astrophysics with the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes
• Detection techniques and investigation of different neutrino experiments