Detection of ultra-high energy cosmic ray showers with a single-pixel fluorescence telescope

Abstract

We present a concept for large-area, low-cost detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with a Fluorescence detector Array of Single-pixel Telescopes (FAST), addressing the requirements for the next generation of UHECR experiments. In the FAST design, a large field of view is covered by a few pixels at the focal plane of a mirror or Fresnel lens. We report first results of a FAST prototype installed at the Telescope Array site, consisting of a single 200 mm photomultiplier tube at the focal plane of a 1 m${}^2$ Fresnel lens system taken from the prototype of the JEM-EUSO experiment. The FAST prototype took data for 19 nights, demonstrating remarkable operational stability. We detected laser shots at distances of several kilometres as well as 16 highly significant UHECR shower candidates.

Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays: The Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers
• GCOS -- The Global Cosmic Ray Observatory
• The First Full-Scale Prototypes of the Fluorescence detector Array of Single-pixel Telescopes
• The Fluorescence detector Array of Single-pixel Telescopes: Contributions to the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2017)
• Science with the Global Cosmic-ray Observatory (GCOS)
• Exploiting the geomagnetic distortion of the inclined atmospheric showers
• Probing new physics with high-multiplicity events: UHE neutrinos at air-shower detector arrays
• Detecting ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with prototypes of the Fluorescence detector Array of Single-pixel Telescopes (FAST) in both hemispheres
• Reconstruction procedure of the Fluorescence detector Array of Single-pixel Telescopes (FAST)
• Future ground arrays for ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays: recent updates and perspectives
• Observing ultra-high energy cosmic rays with prototypes of the Fluorescence detector Array of Single-pixel Telescopes (FAST) in both hemispheres