Radio detection of high-energy cosmic rays with the Auger Engineering Radio Array (PISA 2015)

Abstract

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is an enhancement of the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. Covering about View the $17$km${}^2$, AERA is the world-largest antenna array for cosmic-ray observation. It consists of more than 150 antenna stations detecting the radio signal emitted by air showers, i.e., cascades of secondary particles caused by primary cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere. At the beginning, technical goals had been in focus: first of all, the successful demonstration that a large-scale antenna array consisting of autonomous stations is feasible. Moreover, techniques for calibration of the antennas and time calibration of the array have been developed, as well as special software for the data analysis. Meanwhile physics goals come into focus. At the Pierre Auger Observatory air showers are simultaneously detected by several detector systems, in particular water-Cherenkov detectors at the surface, underground muon detectors, and fluorescence telescopes, which enables cross-calibration of different detection techniques. For the direction and energy of air showers, the precision achieved by AERA is already competitive; for the type of primary particle, several methods are tested and optimized. By combining AERA with the particle detectors we aim for a better understanding of cosmic rays in the energy range from approximately $0.3$ to $10$EeV, i.e., significantly higher energies than preceding radio arrays.

Proceedings of PISA 2015 (published in Nucl. Instr. Meth A)

References in corpus (7)

• A method for high precision reconstruction of air shower Xmax using two-dimensional radio intensity profiles
• Probing the radio emission from air showers with polarization measurements
• Measurement of cosmic-ray air showers with the Tunka Radio Extension (Tunka-Rex)
• REAS3: Monte Carlo simulations of radio emission from cosmic ray air showers using an "end-point" formalism
• The shape of the radio wavefront of extensive air showers as measured with LOFAR
• Experimental evidence for the sensitivity of the air-shower radio signal to the longitudinal shower development
• The wavefront of the radio signal emitted by cosmic ray air showers

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Radio detection of Cosmic-Ray Air Showers and High-Energy Neutrinos
• Prototype muon detectors for the AMIGA component of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Determination of the absolute energy scale of extensive air showers via radio emission: systematic uncertainty of underlying first-principle calculations
• Nanosecond-level time synchronization of autonomous radio detector stations for extensive air showers
• The Tunka Radio Extension (Tunka-Rex): Radio Measurements of Cosmic Rays in Siberia (PISA 2015)
• Modelling uncertainty of the radiation energy emitted by extensive air showers