A lunar radio experiment with the Parkes radio telescope for the LUNASKA project

Abstract

We describe an experiment using the Parkes radio telescope in the 1.2-1.5 GHz frequency range as part of the LUNASKA project, to search for nanosecond-scale pulses from particle cascades in the Moon, which may be triggered by ultra-high-energy astroparticles. Through the combination of a highly sensitive multi-beam radio receiver, a purpose-built backend and sophisticated signal-processing techniques, we achieve sensitivity to radio pulses with a threshold electric field strength of 0.0053 $\mu$V/m/MHz, lower than previous experiments by a factor of three. We observe no pulses in excess of this threshold in observations with an effective duration of 127 hours. The techniques we employ, including compensating for the phase, dispersion and spectrum of the expected pulse, are relevant for future lunar radio experiments.

Accepted by Astroparticle Physics; 23 pages, 17 figures, 3 tables

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• Exploring the time variability of the Solar Wind using LOFAR pulsar data
• On the nature of radio-wave radiation from particle cascades
• A limit on the ultra-high-energy neutrino flux from lunar observations with the Parkes radio telescope
• Overview of lunar detection of ultra-high energy particles and new plans for the SKA
• Minimal prospects for radio detection of extensive air showers in the atmosphere of Jupiter
• Bandpass calibration of a wideband spectrometer using coherent pulse injection
• The SKA Particle Array Prototype: The First Particle Detector at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory
• An Ultra-High Time Resolution Cosmic Ray Detection Mode for the Murchison Widefield Array
• Search for Cosmic Particles with the Moon and LOFAR
• Long-term Timing Results of Ecliptic Pulsars Observed with I-LOFAR
• Realtime processing of LOFAR data for the detection of nano-second pulses from the Moon
• Sensitivity of lunar particle-detection experiments