Calibration of the LOFAR low-band antennas using the Galaxy and a model of the signal chain

The LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) is used to make precise measurements of radio emission from extensive air showers, yielding information about the primary cosmic ray. Interpreting the measured data requires an absolute and frequency-dependent calibration of the LOFAR system response. This is particularly important for spectral analyses, because the shape of the detected signal holds information about the shower development. We revisit the calibration of the LOFAR antennas in the range of 30 - 80 MHz. Using the Galactic emission and a detailed model of the LOFAR signal chain, we find an improved calibration that provides an absolute energy scale and allows for the study of frequency-dependent features in measured signals. With the new calibration, systematic uncertainties of 13% are reached, and comparisons of the spectral shape of calibrated data with simulations show promising agreement.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Realtime processing of LOFAR data for the detection of nano-second pulses from the Moon

The low flux of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) at the highest energies provides a challenge to answer the long standing question about their origin and nature. Even lower fluxes of neutrinos with energies above $10^{22}$ eV are predicted in certain Grand-Unifying-Theories (GUTs) and e.g.\ models for super-heavy dark matter (SHDM). The significant increase in detector volume required to detect these particles can be achieved by searching for the nano-second radio pulses that are emitted when a particle interacts in Earth's moon with current and future radio telescopes. In this contribution we present the design of an online analysis and trigger pipeline for the detection of nano-second pulses with the LOFAR radio telescope. The most important steps of the processing pipeline are digital focusing of the antennas towards the Moon, correction of the signal for ionospheric dispersion, and synthesis of the time-domain signal from the polyphased-filtered signal in frequency domain. The implementation of the pipeline on a GPU/CPU cluster will be discussed together with the computing performance of the prototype.Comment: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP2016), US

Cosmic Ray Physics with the LOFAR Radio Telescope

The LOFAR radio telescope is able to measure the radio emission from cosmic ray induced air showers with hundreds of individual antennas. This allows for precision testing of the emission mechanisms for the radio signal as well as determination of the depth of shower maximum $X_{\max}$, the shower observable most sensitive to the mass of the primary cosmic ray, to better than 20 g/cm$^2$. With a densely instrumented circular area of roughly 320 m$^2$, LOFAR is targeting for cosmic ray astrophysics in the energy range $10^{16}$ - $10^{18}$ eV. In this contribution we give an overview of the status, recent results, and future plans of cosmic ray detection with the LOFAR radio telescope.Comment: Proceedings of the 26th Extended European Cosmic Ray Symposium (ECRS), Barnaul/Belokurikha, 201

Measurement of the circular polarization in radio emission from extensive air showers confirms emission mechanisms

We report here on a novel analysis of the complete set of four Stokes parameters that uniquely determine the linear and/or circular polarization of the radio signal for an extensive air shower. The observed dependency of the circular polarization on azimuth angle and distance to the shower axis is a clear signature of the interfering contributions from two different radiation mechanisms, a main contribution due to a geomagnetically-induced transverse current and a secondary component due to the build-up of excess charge at the shower front. The data, as measured at LOFAR, agree very well with a calculation from first principles. This opens the possibility to use circular polarization as an investigative tool in the analysis of air shower structure, such as for the determination of atmospheric electric fields.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

CRPropa: a public framework to propagate UHECRs in the universe

To answer the fundamental questions concerning the origin and nature of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), it is important to confront data with simulated astrophysical scenarios. These scenarios should include detailed information on particle interactions and astrophysical environments. To achieve this goal one should make use of computational tools to simulate the propagation of these particles. For this reason the CRPropa framework was developed. It allows the propagation of UHECRs with energies $\gtrsim$10$^{17}$ eV and secondary gamma rays and neutrinos. The newest version, CRPropa 3, reflects an efficient redesign of the code as well as several new features such as time dependent propagation in three dimensions, galactic magnetic field effects and improved treatment of interactions, among other enhancements.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures; Proceedings of the International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions (ISVHECRI 2014

On the cosmic-ray energy scale of the LOFAR radio telescope

Cosmic rays are routinely measured at LOFAR, both with a dense array of antennas and with the LOFAR Radboud air shower Array (LORA) which is an array of plastic scintillators. In this paper, we present two results relating to the cosmic-ray energy scale of LOFAR. First, we present the reconstruction of cosmic-ray energy using radio and particle techniques along with a discussion of the event-by-event and absolute scale uncertainties. The resulting energies reconstructed with each method are shown to be in good agreement, and because the radio-based reconstructed energy has smaller uncertainty on an event-to-event basis, LOFAR analyses will use that technique in the future. Second, we present the radiation energy of air showers measured at LOFAR and demonstrate how radiation energy can be used to compare the energy scales of different experiments. The radiation energy scales quadratically with the electromagnetic energy in an air shower, which can in turn be related to the energy of the primary particle. Once the local magnetic field is accounted for, the radiation energy allows for a direct comparison between the LORA particle-based energy scale and that of the Pierre Auger Observatory. They are shown to agree to within (6$\pm$20)% for a radiation energy of 1 MeV, where the uncertainty on the comparison is dominated by the antenna calibrations of each experiment. This study motivates the development of a portable radio array which will be used to cross-calibrate the energy scales of different experiments using radiation energy and the same antennas, thereby significantly reducing the uncertainty on the comparison

A Development Environment for Visual Physics Analysis

The Visual Physics Analysis (VISPA) project integrates different aspects of physics analyses into a graphical development environment. It addresses the typical development cycle of (re-)designing, executing and verifying an analysis. The project provides an extendable plug-in mechanism and includes plug-ins for designing the analysis flow, for running the analysis on batch systems, and for browsing the data content. The corresponding plug-ins are based on an object-oriented toolkit for modular data analysis. We introduce the main concepts of the project, describe the technical realization and demonstrate the functionality in example applications

Search for Cosmic Particles with the Moon and LOFAR

The low flux of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) at the highest energies provides a challenge to answer the long standing question about their origin and nature. A significant increase in the number of detected UHECR is expected to be achieved by employing Earth's moon as detector, and search for short radio pulses that are emitted when a particle interacts in the lunar rock. Observation of these short pulses with current and future radio telescopes also allows to search for the even lower fluxes of neutrinos with energies above $10^{22}$ eV, that are predicted in certain Grand-Unifying-Theories (GUTs), and e.g. models for super-heavy dark matter (SHDM). In this contribution we present the initial design for such a search with the LOFAR radio telescope.Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of the ARENA2016 conference, Groningen, The Netherland