Observation of inclined EeV air showers with the radio detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

Abstract

With the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we have observed the radio emission from 561 extensive air showers with zenith angles between 60${}^{\circ }$ and 84${}^{\circ }$. In contrast to air showers with more vertical incidence, these inclined air showers illuminate large ground areas of several km${}^2$ with radio signals detectable in the 30 to 80\,MHz band. A comparison of the measured radio-signal amplitudes with Monte Carlo simulations of a subset of 50 events for which we reconstruct the energy using the Auger surface detector shows agreement within the uncertainties of the current analysis. As expected for forward-beamed radio emission undergoing no significant absorption or scattering in the atmosphere, the area illuminated by radio signals grows with the zenith angle of the air shower. Inclined air showers with EeV energies are thus measurable with sparse radio-antenna arrays with grid sizes of a km or more. This is particularly attractive as radio detection provides direct access to the energy in the electromagnetic cascade of an air shower, which in case of inclined air showers is not accessible by arrays of particle detectors on the ground.

arXiv commentPublished version, 14 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (33)

• Relativistic Hadron-Hadron Collisions in the Ultra-Relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics Model (UrQMD)
• The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory
• Monte Carlo treatment of hadronic interactions in enhanced Pomeron scheme: I. QGSJET-II model
• Depth of Maximum of Air-Shower Profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory: Measurements at Energies above 10^17.8 eV
• Muons in air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory: Mean number in highly inclined events
• Trigger and Aperture of the Surface Detector Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• The Offline Software Framework of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Monte Carlo simulations of radio pulses in atmospheric showers using ZHAireS
• Radio detection of Cosmic-Ray Air Showers and High-Energy Neutrinos
• An improved limit to the diffuse flux of ultra-high energy neutrinos from the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Simulating radio emission from air showers with CoREAS
• Radio detection of cosmic ray air showers in the digital era
• Antennas for the Detection of Radio Emission Pulses from Cosmic-Ray induced Air Showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Observation of Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays with the ANITA Balloon-borne Radio Interferometer
• Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy
• Radio detection of air showers with the ARIANNA experiment on the Ross Ice Shelf
• Radio emission from cosmic ray air showers: simulation results and parametrization
• Reconstruction of inclined air showers detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Description of Atmospheric Conditions at the Pierre Auger Observatory using the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS)
• Coherent Cherenkov Radiation from Cosmic-Ray-Induced Air Showers
• Advanced functionality for radio analysis in the Offline software framework of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Energy and Flux Measurements of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays Observed During the First ANITA Flight
• Simulation of Radiation Energy Release in Air Showers
• Coherent Radiation from Extensive Air Showers in the Ultra-High Frequency Band
• Calibration of the Logarithmic-Periodic Dipole Antenna (LPDA) Radio Stations at the Pierre Auger Observatory using an Octocopter
• The Rapid Atmospheric Monitoring System of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Radio emission of highly inclined cosmic ray air showers measured with LOPES
• Are vertical cosmic rays the most suitable to radio detection ?
• LOPES-3D, an antenna array for full signal detection of air-shower radio emission
• Measurement of horizontal air showers with the Auger Engineering Radio Array
• The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND): Present and Perspectives
• Radio detection of cosmic rays: present and future

Cited by in corpus (30)

• The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND): Science and Design
• Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies
• AugerPrime: the Pierre Auger Observatory Upgrade
• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays: The Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers
• NuRadioReco: A reconstruction framework for radio neutrino detectors
• Targeting ultra-high energy neutrinos with the ARIANNA experiment
• Charged rotating black holes coupled with nonlinear electrodynamics Maxwell field in the mimetic gravity
• Tau Neutrinos in the Next Decade: from GeV to EeV
• GCOS -- The Global Cosmic Ray Observatory
• Design and Initial Performance of the Prototype for the BEACON Instrument for Detection of Ultrahigh Energy Particles
• Radio interferometry applied to the observation of cosmic-ray induced extensive air showers
• Enhancing the cosmic-ray mass sensitivity of air-shower arrays by combining radio and muon detectors
• Radio Measurements of the Depth of Air-Shower Maximum at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Final results of the LOPES radio interferometer for cosmic-ray air showers
• On the nature of radio-wave radiation from particle cascades
• Reconstructing non-repeating radio pulses with Information Field Theory
• Refractive displacement of the radio-emission footprint of inclined air showers simulated with CoREAS
• What is the nature and origin of the highest-energy particles in the universe?
• Expected performance of air-shower measurements with the radio-interferometric technique
• Radio detection of cosmic rays with the Auger Engineering Radio Array
• Science with the Global Cosmic-ray Observatory (GCOS)
• The Radio Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory -- status and expected performance
• Radio-detection of neutrino-induced air showers: the influence of topography
• Radio wavefront of very inclined extensive air-showers: a simulation study for extended and sparse radio arrays
• GRANDlib: A simulation pipeline for the Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND)
• Probing new physics with high-multiplicity events: UHE neutrinos at air-shower detector arrays
• Radio Detection of ultra-high-energy Cosmic-Ray Air Showers
• Uncertainties in the Estimation of Air Shower Observables from Monte Carlo Simulation of Radio Emission
• Measuring the muon content of inclined air showers using AERA and the water-Cherenkov detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Radio detection in the multi-messenger context