809 research outputs found
Prospects for radio detection of extremely high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos in the Moon
We explore the feasibility of using the Moon as a detector of extremely high
energy (>10^19 eV) cosmic rays and neutrinos. The idea is to use the existing
radiotelescopes on Earth to look for short pulses of Cherenkov radiation in the
GHz range emitted by showers induced just below the surface of the Moon when
cosmic rays or neutrinos strike it. We estimate the energy threshold of the
technique and the effective aperture and volume of the Moon for this detection.
We apply our calculation to obtain the expected event rates from the observed
cosmic ray flux and several representative theoretical neutrino fluxes.Comment: 11 pages, Latex, aipproc.sty and epsfig.sty. 5 ps figures. Talk
presented by J. Alvarez-Muniz at the 1st International Workshop on Radio
Detection of High Energy Particles (RADHEP-2000), UCLA, November 2000. Some
typos corrected. Fig.4 caption extende
Characterization of neutrino signals with radiopulses in dense media through the LPM effect
We discuss the possibilities of detecting radio pulses from high energy
showers in ice, such as those produced by PeV and EeV neutrino interactions. It
is shown that the rich radiation pattern structure in the 100 MHz to few GHz
allows the separation of electromagnetic showers induced by photons or
electrons above 100 PeV from those induced by hadrons. This opens up the
possibility of measuring the energy fraction transmitted to the electron in a
charged current electron neutrino interaction with adequate sampling of the
angular distribution of the signal. The radio technique has the potential to
complement conventional high energy neutrino detectors with flavor information.Comment: 5 pages, 4 ps figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Observation of the Askaryan Effect: Coherent Microwave Cherenkov Emission from Charge Asymmetry in High Energy Particle Cascades
We present the first direct experimental evidence for the charge excess in
high energy particle showers predicted nearly 40 years ago by Askaryan. We
directed bremsstrahlung photons from picosecond pulses of 28.5 GeV electrons at
the SLAC Final Focus Test Beam facility into a 3.5 ton silica sand target,
producing electromagnetic showers several meters long. A series of antennas
spanning 0.3 to 6 GHz were used to detect strong, sub-nanosecond radio
frequency pulses produced whenever a shower was present. The measured electric
field strengths are consistent with a completely coherent radiation process.
The pulses show 100% linear polarization, consistent with the expectations of
Cherenkov radiation. The field strength versus depth closely follows the
expected particle number density profile of the cascade, consistent with
emission from excess charge distributed along the shower. These measurements
therefore provide strong support for experiments designed to detect high energy
cosmic rays and neutrinos via coherent radio emission from their cascades.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Addendum to "Coherent radio pulses from GEANT generated electromagnetic showers in ice"
We reevaluate our published calculations of electromagnetic showers generated
by GEANT 3.21 and the radio frequency pulses they produce in ice. We are
prompted by a recent report showing that GEANT 3.21-modeled showers are
sensitive to internal settings in the electron tracking subroutine. We report
the shower and pulse characteristics obtained with different settings of GEANT
3.21 and with GEANT 4. The default setting of electron tracking in GEANT 3.21
we used in previous work speeds up the shower simulation at the cost of
information near the end of the tracks. We find that settings tracking electron
and positron to lower energy yield a more accurate calculation, a more intense
shower, and proportionately stronger radio pulses at low frequencies. At high
frequencies the relation between shower tracking algorithm and pulse spectrum
is more complex. We obtain radial distributions of shower particles and phase
distributions of pulses from 100 GeV showers that are consistent with our
published results.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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