Prospects for direct cosmic ray mass measurements through the Gerasimova-Zatsepin effect

The Solar radiation field may break apart ultra high energy cosmic nuclei, after which both remnants will be deflected in the interplanetary magnetic field in different ways. This process is known as the Gerasimova-Zatsepin effect after its discoverers. We investigate the possibility of using the detection of the separated air showers produced by a pair of remnant particles as a way to identify the species of the original cosmic ray primary directly. Event rates for current and proposed detectors are estimated, and requirements are defined for ideal detectors of this phenomenon. Detailed computational models of the disintegration and deflection processes for a wide range of cosmic ray primaries in the energy range of 10^16 to 10^20 eV are combined with sophisticated detector models to calculate realistic detection rates. The fraction of Gerasimova-Zatsepin events is found to be of the order of 10^-5 of the cosmic ray flux, implying an intrinsic event rate of around 0.07 km^-2 sr^-1 yr^-1 in the energy range defined. Event rates in any real experiment, however, existing or under construction, will probably not exceed 10^-2 yr^-1.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Simulation of radio emission from cosmic ray air shower with SELFAS2

We present a microscopic computation of the radio emission from air showers initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays in the atmosphere. The strategy adopted is to compute each secondary particle contribution of the electromagnetic component and to construct the total signal at any location. SELFAS2 is a code which doesn't rely on air shower generators like AIRES or CORSIKA and it is based on the concept of air shower universality which makes it completely autonomous. Each positron and electron of the air shower is generated randomly following relevant distributions and tracking them along their travel in the atmosphere. We confirm in this paper earlier results that the radio emission is mainly due to the time derivative of the transverse current and the time derivative of the charge excess. The time derivative of the transverse current created by systematic deviations of charges in the geomagnetic field is usually dominant compared to the charge excess contribution except for the case of an air shower parallel to the geomagnetic field.Comment: 17 pages, 21 figure

The LOPES experiment - recent results, status and perspectives

The LOPES experiment at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has been taking radio data in the frequency range from 40 to 80 MHz in coincidence with the KASCADE-Grande air shower detector since 2003. Various experimental configurations have been employed to study aspects such as the energy scaling, geomagnetic dependence, lateral distribution, and polarization of the radio emission from cosmic rays. The high quality per-event air shower information provided by KASCADE-Grande has been the key to many of these studies and has even allowed us to perform detailed per-event comparisons with simulations of the radio emission. In this article, we give an overview of results obtained by LOPES, and present the status and perspectives of the ever-evolving experiment.Comment: Proceedings of the ARENA2010 conference, Nantes, Franc

Astronomy Astrophysics Prospects for direct cosmic ray mass measurements through the Gerasimova-Zatsepin effect (Research Note)

ABSTRACT Context. The solar radiation field may break ultra-high-energy cosmic nuclei apart, after which both remnants will be deflected in the interplanetary magnetic field in different ways. This process is known as the Gerasimova-Zatsepin effect after its discoverers. Aims. We investigate the possibility of using the detection of the separated air showers produced by a pair of remnant particles as a way to identify the species of the original cosmic ray primary directly. Event rates for current and proposed detectors are estimated, and requirements are defined for ideal detectors of this phenomenon. Methods. Detailed computational models of the disintegration and deflection processes for a wide range of cosmic ray primaries in the energy range of 10 16 to 10 20 eV were combined with sophisticated detector models to calculate realistic detection rates. Results. The fraction of Gerasimova-Zatsepin events is found to be approximately 10 −5 of the cosmic ray flux, implying an intrinsic event rate of around 0.07 km −2 sr −1 yr −1 in the defined energy range. Event rates in any real experiment, whether existing or under construction, will probably not exceed 10 −2 yr −1

Analysis of inclined showers measured with LOPES

Contains fulltext : 75190.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)4 p

Investigations of the radio signal of inclined showers with lopes

Contains fulltext : 93909.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access

Radio emission of energetic cosmic ray air showers: Polarization measurements with LOPES

Contains fulltext : 75974.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)5 p

Recent Results from KASCADE-Grande and LOPES

Contains fulltext : 75982.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)10 p