A high-precision interpolation method for pulsed radio signals from cosmic-ray air showers

Abstract

Analysis of radio signals from cosmic-ray induced air showers has been shown to be a reliable method to extract shower parameters such as primary energy and depth of shower maximum. The required detailed air shower simulations take 1 to 3 days of CPU time per shower for a few hundred antennas. With nearly $60,000$ antennas envisioned to be used for air shower studies at the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), simulating all of these would come at unreasonable costs. We present an interpolation algorithm to reconstruct the full pulse time series at any position in the radio footprint, from a set of antennas simulated on a polar grid. Relying on Fourier series representations and cubic splines, it significantly improves on existing linear methods. We show that simulating about 200 antennas is sufficient for high-precision analysis in the SKA era, including e.g. interferometry which relies on accurate pulse shapes and timings. We therefore propose the interpolation algorithm and its implementation as a useful extension of radio simulation codes, to limit computational effort while retaining accuracy.

arXiv comment21 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in JINST (Journal of Instrumentation)

References in corpus (22)

• SciPy 1.0--Fundamental Algorithms for Scientific Computing in Python
• Array Programming with NumPy
• LOFAR: The LOw-Frequency ARray
• Monte Carlo simulations of radio pulses in atmospheric showers using ZHAireS
• Simulating radio emission from air showers with CoREAS
• Radio detection of cosmic ray air showers in the digital era
• A large light-mass component of cosmic rays at 10^{17} - 10^{17.5} eV from radio observations
• A method for high precision reconstruction of air shower Xmax using two-dimensional radio intensity profiles
• Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy
• Detecting cosmic rays with the LOFAR radio telescope
• Radio detection of air showers with the ARIANNA experiment on the Ross Ice Shelf
• Simulation of Radiation Energy Release in Air Showers
• Depth of shower maximum and mass composition of cosmic rays from 50 PeV to 2 EeV measured with the LOFAR radio telescope
• The radio emission pattern of air showers as measured with LOFAR - a tool for the reconstruction of the energy and the shower maximum
• Determination of the absolute energy scale of extensive air showers via radio emission: systematic uncertainty of underlying first-principle calculations
• Analytic calculation of radio emission from parameterized extensive air showers, a tool to extract shower parameters
• Radio interferometry applied to the observation of cosmic-ray induced extensive air showers
• Ultimate precision in cosmic-ray radio detection --- the SKA
• Radio Morphing: towards a fast computation of the radio signal from air showers
• Expected performance of air-shower measurements with the radio-interferometric technique
• Radio detection of cosmic rays with the Auger Engineering Radio Array
• Synthesis of radio signals from extensive air showers using previously computed microscopic simulations

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Simulation of radio signals from cosmic-ray cascades in air and ice as observed by in-ice Askaryan radio detectors
• A LOFAR-style reconstruction of cosmic-ray air showers with SKA-Low
• Proof of principle for template synthesis approach for the radio emission from vertical extensive air showers
• A Bayesian Method for Air-Shower Reconstruction using Information Field Theory