First Experimental Characterization of Microwave Emission from Cosmic Ray Air Showers

Abstract

We report the first direct measurement of the overall characteristics of microwave radio emission from extensive air showers. Using a trigger provided by the KASCADE-Grande air shower array, the signals of the microwave antennas of the CROME (Cosmic-Ray Observation via Microwave Emission) experiment have been read out and searched for signatures of radio emission by high-energy air showers in the GHz frequency range. Microwave signals have been detected for more than 30 showers with energies above 3*10^16 eV. The observations presented in this Letter are consistent with a mainly forward-directed and polarised emission process in the GHz frequency range. The measurements show that microwave radiation offers a new means of studying air showers at energies above 10^17 eV.

Accepted for publication in PRL

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• The effect of the atmospheric refractive index on the radio signal of extensive air showers
• Reconstructing air shower parameters with LOFAR using event specific GDAS atmospheres
• Classification and Recovery of Radio Signals from Cosmic Ray Induced Air Showers with Deep Learning
• Final results of the LOPES radio interferometer for cosmic-ray air showers
• Simulations of reflected radio signals from cosmic ray induced air showers
• High-Energy Galactic Cosmic Rays (Astro2020 Science White Paper)
• On the nature of radio-wave radiation from particle cascades
• An Estimate of the Spectral Intensity Expected from the Molecular Bremsstrahlung Radiation in Extensive Air Showers
• Radio Detection of ultra-high-energy Cosmic-Ray Air Showers
• Radio detection of cosmic rays in [1.7-3.7] MHz: the EXTASIS experiment
• Coherent Suppression of Molecular Bremsstrahlung Radiation at GHz Frequencies in the Ionization Trail of Extensive Air Showers
• Simulation study of the correlation ($X_{max}^{\mu }$, $N^{\mu }$) in view of obtaining information on primary mass of the UHECRs
• Status of air-shower measurements with sparse radio arrays (ARENA 2016)