Experimental evidence for the sensitivity of the air-shower radio signal to the longitudinal shower development

Apel, W. D.; Arteaga, J.C.; Bähren, L.; Bekk, K.; Bertaina, M.; Biermann, P. L.; Blümer, J.; Bozdog, H.; Brancus, I. M.; Buchholz, P.; Cantoni, E.; Чиавасса, А.; Daumiller, K.; Souza, V. de; Pierro, F. Di; Döll, P.; Engel, R.; Falcke, H.; Finger, M.; Fuchs, B.; Fuhrmann, D.; Gemmeke, H.; Grupen, C.; Haungs, A.; Heck, D.; Hörandel, J. R.; Horneffer, A.; Huber, Daniel; Huege, T.; Isar, P. G.; Kampert, K.‐H.; Kang, D.; Krömer, O.; Kuijpers, J.; Link, K.; Łuczak, P.; Ludwig, M.; Mathes, H. J.; Melissas, M.; Morello, C.; Oehlschläger, J.; Palmieri, N.; Pierog, T.; Rautenberg, J.; Rebel, H.; Roth, M.; Rühle, C.; Sǎftoiu, A.; Schieler, H.; Schmidt, A.; Schröder, Frank G.; Sima, O.; Toma, G.; Trinchero, G.; Weindl, A.; Wochele, J.; Wommer, M.; Zabierowski, J.; Zensus, J. A.

doi:10.1103/physrevd.85.071101

Cited by 54 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Like fluorescence light, the radio signal carries information of the complete longitudinal development of the shower [12]. It is therefore possible to reconstruct X max from the radio signal [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Method for high precision reconstruction of air showerXmaxusing two-dimensional radio intensity profiles

et al. 2014

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The mass composition of cosmic rays contains important clues about their origin. Accurate measurements are needed to resolve longstanding issues such as the transition from Galactic to extraGalactic origin and the nature of the cutoff observed at the highest energies. Composition can be studied by measuring the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum X max of air showers generated by high-energy cosmic rays hitting the Earth's atmosphere. We present a new method to reconstruct X max based on radio measurements. The radio emission mechanism of air showers is a complex process that creates an asymmetric intensity pattern on the ground. The shape of this pattern strongly depends on the longitudinal development of the shower. We reconstruct X max by fitting two-dimensional intensity profiles, simulated with CoREAS, to data from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope. In the dense LOFAR core, air showers are detected by hundreds of antennas simultaneously. The simulations fit the data very well, indicating that the radiation mechanism is now well understood. The typical uncertainty on the reconstruction of X max for LOFAR showers is 17 g=cm 2 .

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Method for high precision reconstruction of air showerXmaxusing two-dimensional radio intensity profiles

et al. 2014

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“…Experimentally it has been shown that the amplitude of the radio pulse scales with the energy of the primary particle [3]. Recently, it has also been demonstrated that the radio emission pattern observed at the ground is sensitive to the atmospheric depth of shower maximum X max [4,5]. This parameter which depends on the type or mass of the primary particle can be measured with an accuracy comparable to that of established techniques, such as the detection of Fluorescence or Cherenkov light (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring a Cherenkov ring in the radio emission from air showers at 110–190MHz with LOFAR

Nelles

Schellart

Buitink

et al. 2015

Astroparticle Physics

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Measuring radio emission from air showers offers a novel way to determine properties of the primary cosmic rays such as their mass and energy. Theory predicts that relativistic time compression effects lead to a ring of amplified emission which starts to dominate the emission pattern for frequencies above ∼ 100 MHz. In this article we present the first detailed measurements of this structure. Ring structures in the radio emission of air showers are measured with the LOFAR radio telescope in the frequency range of 110 − 190 MHz. These data are well described by CoREAS simulations. They clearly confirm the importance of including the index of refraction of air as a function of height. Furthermore, the presence of the Cherenkov ring offers the possibility for a geometrical measurement of the depth of shower maximum, which in turn depends on the mass of the primary particle.

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“…9), but not per individual event, since it depends on the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum [25], and there is no way to reproduce the (unknown) shower maximum of the measured events with the individual simulations. Experimental observation in- Figure 11: Deviation between the measured ǫ100 and the scaled simulated ǫ100 divided by the total uncertainty of the individual events, and a fitted Gaussian for each histogram.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, we have decided to use an exponential LDF with an amplitude and a slope parameter, as already in Refs. [24,25] -in particular since a power law as alternative 2-parameter LDF has been shown to be inappropriate for LOPES events [24].…”

Section: Lateral Distribution Function (Ldf)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The lateral distribution of the radio signal is the variation of the radio amplitude ǫ with the distance to air shower axis d. It has already been studied with LOPES [24,25] and other experiments (e.g., CODALEMA [12]), and already it was compared to simulations [26], however, only for single events or with a limited statistics. These limited studies had been sufficient to show that earlier models, not yet including the refractive index of the air, could not fully reproduce the measurements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparison of LOPES measurements with CoREAS and REAS 3.11 simulations

Ludwig¹,

Apel²,

Arteaga‐Velázquez³

et al. 2013

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Cosmic ray air showers emit radio pulses at MHz frequencies, which can be measured with radio antenna arrays -like LOPES at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. To improve the understanding of the radio emission, we test theoretical descriptions with measured data. The observables used for these tests are the absolute amplitude of the radio signal, and the shape of the radio lateral distribution. We compare lateral distributions of more than 500 LOPES events with two recent and public Monte Carlo simulation codes, REAS 3.11 and CoREAS (v 1.0). The absolute radio amplitudes predicted by REAS 3.11 are in good agreement with the LOPES measurements. The amplitudes predicted by CoREAS are lower by a factor of two, and marginally compatible with the LOPES measurements within the systematic scale uncertainties. In contrast to any previous versions of REAS, REAS 3.11 and CoREAS now reproduce the shape of the measured lateral distributions correctly. This reflects a remarkable progress compared to the situation a few years ago, and it seems that the main processes for the radio emission of air showers are now understood: The emission is mainly due to the geomagnetic deflection of the electrons and positrons in the shower. Less important but not negligible is the Askaryan effect (net charge variation). Moreover, we confirm that the refractive index of the air plays an important role, since it changes the coherence conditions for the emission: Only the new simulations including the refractive index can reproduce rising lateral distributions which we observe in a few LOPES events. Finally, we show that the lateral distribution is sensitive to the energy and the mass of the primary cosmic ray particles.

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Experimental evidence for the sensitivity of the air-shower radio signal to the longitudinal shower development

Cited by 54 publications

References 23 publications

Method for high precision reconstruction of air showerXmaxusing two-dimensional radio intensity profiles

Method for high precision reconstruction of air showerXmaxusing two-dimensional radio intensity profiles

Measuring a Cherenkov ring in the radio emission from air showers at 110–190MHz with LOFAR

Comparison of LOPES measurements with CoREAS and REAS 3.11 simulations

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