988 research outputs found
Prospects for determining air shower characteristics through geosynchrotron emission arrival times
Using simulations of geosynchrotron radiation from extensive air showers, we
present a relation between the shape of the geosynchrotron radiation front and
the distance of the observer to the maximum of the air shower. By analyzing the
relative arrival times of radio pulses at several radio antennas in an air
shower array, this relation may be employed to estimate the depth of maximum of
an extensive air shower if its impact position is known, allowing an estimate
for the primary particle's species. Vice versa, the relation provides an
estimate for the impact position of the shower's core if an external estimate
of the depth of maximum is available. In realistic circumstances, the method
delivers reconstruction uncertainties down to 30 g/cm^2 when the distance to
the shower core does not exceed 7 km. The method requires that the arrival
direction is known with high precision.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Astroparticle
Physics
Simulation of radio emission from air showers in atmospheric electric fields
We study the effect of atmospheric electric fields on the radio pulse emitted
by cosmic ray air showers. Under fair weather conditions the dominant part of
the radio emission is driven by the geomagnetic field. When the shower charges
are accelerated and deflected in an electric field additional radiation is
emitted. We simulate this effect with the Monte Carlo code REAS2, using
CORSIKA-simulated showers as input. In both codes a routine has been
implemented that treats the effect of the electric field on the shower
particles. We find that the radio pulse is significantly altered in background
fields of the order of ~100 V/cm and higher. Practically, this means that air
showers passing through thunderstorms emit radio pulses that are not a reliable
measure for the shower energy. Under other weather circumstances significant
electric field effects are expected to occur rarely, but nimbostratus clouds
can harbor fields that are large enough. In general, the contribution of the
electric field to the radio pulse has polarization properties that are
different from the geomagnetic pulse. In order to filter out radio pulses that
have been affected by electric field effects, radio air shower experiments
should keep weather information and perform full polarization measurements of
the radio signal.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle
Physic
Monte Carlo simulations of air showers in atmospheric electric fields
The development of cosmic ray air showers can be influenced by atmospheric
electric fields. Under fair weather conditions these fields are small, but the
strong fields inside thunderstorms can have a significant effect on the
electromagnetic component of a shower. Understanding this effect is
particularly important for radio detection of air showers, since the radio
emission is produced by the shower electrons and positrons. We perform Monte
Carlo simulations to calculate the effects of different electric field
configurations on the shower development. We find that the electric field
becomes important for values of the order of 1 kV/cm. Not only can the energy
distribution of electrons and positrons change significantly for such field
strengths, it is also possible that runaway electron breakdown occurs at high
altitudes, which is an important effect in lightning initiation.Comment: 24 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle
Physic
Universality of electron-positron distributions in extensive air showers
Using a large set of simulated extensive air showers, we investigate
universality features of electron and positron distributions in
very-high-energy cosmic-ray air showers. Most particle distributions depend
only on the depth of the shower maximum and the number of particles in the
cascade at this depth. We provide multi-dimensional parameterizations for the
electron-positron distributions in terms of particle energy, vertical and
horizontal momentum angle, lateral distance, and time distribution of the
shower front. These parameterizations can be used to obtain realistic
electron-positron distributions in extensive air showers for data analysis and
simulations of Cherenkov radiation, fluorescence signal, and radio emission.Comment: 13 pages, 22 figures, 1 tabl
A method for high precision reconstruction of air shower Xmax using two-dimensional radio intensity profiles
The mass composition of cosmic rays contains important clues about their
origin. Accurate measurements are needed to resolve long-standing 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 Xmax of air showers
generated by high-energy cosmic rays hitting the Earth's atmosphere. We present
a new method to reconstruct Xmax 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 Xmax by
fitting two-dimensional intensity profiles, simulated with CoREAS, to data from
the 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 Xmax for LOFAR showers is 17 g/cm^2.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
New method for the time calibration of an interferometric radio antenna array
Digital radio antenna arrays, like LOPES (LOFAR PrototypE Station), detect
high-energy cosmic rays via the radio emission from atmospheric extensive air
showers. LOPES is an array of dipole antennas placed within and triggered by
the KASCADE-Grande experiment on site of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology,
Germany. The antennas are digitally combined to build a radio interferometer by
forming a beam into the air shower arrival direction which allows measurements
even at low signal-to-noise ratios in individual antennas. This technique
requires a precise time calibration. A combination of several calibration steps
is used to achieve the necessary timing accuracy of about 1 ns. The group
delays of the setup are measured, the frequency dependence of these delays
(dispersion) is corrected in the subsequent data analysis, and variations of
the delays with time are monitored. We use a transmitting reference antenna, a
beacon, which continuously emits sine waves at known frequencies. Variations of
the relative delays between the antennas can be detected and corrected for at
each recorded event by measuring the phases at the beacon frequencies.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, pre-print of article published in
Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A, available at:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TJM-4Y9CF4B-4/2/37bfcb899a0f387d9875a5a0729593a
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
Radio detection of cosmic ray air showers with LOPES
In the last few years, radio detection of cosmic ray air showers has
experienced a true renaissance, becoming manifest in a number of new
experiments and simulation efforts. In particular, the LOPES project has
successfully implemented modern interferometric methods to measure the radio
emission from extensive air showers. LOPES has confirmed that the emission is
coherent and of geomagnetic origin, as expected by the geosynchrotron
mechanism, and has demonstrated that a large scale application of the radio
technique has great potential to complement current measurements of ultra-high
energy cosmic rays. We describe the current status, most recent results and
open questions regarding radio detection of cosmic rays and give an overview of
ongoing research and development for an application of the radio technique in
the framework of the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: 8 pages; Proceedings of the CRIS2006 conference, Catania, Italy; to
be published in Nuclear Physics B, Proceedings Supplement
Frequency spectra of cosmic ray air shower radio emission measured with LOPES
AIMS: We wish to study the spectral dependence of the radio emission from
cosmic-ray air showers around 100 PeV (1017 eV). METHODS: We observe short
radio pulses in a broad frequency band with the dipole-interferometer LOPES
(LOFAR Prototype Station), which is triggered by a particle detector array
named Karlsruhe Shower Core and Array Detector (KASCADE). LOFAR is the Low
Frequency Array. For this analysis, 23 strong air shower events are selected
using parameters from KASCADE. RESULTS: The resulting electric field spectra
fall off to higher frequencies. An average electric field spectrum is fitted
with an exponential, or alternatively, with a power law. The spectral slope
obtained is not consistent within uncertainties and it is slightly steeper than
the slope obtained from Monte Carlo simulations based on air showers simulated
with CORSIKA (Cosmic Ray Simulations for KASCADE). One of the strongest events
was measured during thunderstorm activity in the vicinity of LOPES and shows
the longest pulse length measured of 110 ns and a spectral slope of -3.6.
CONCLUSIONS: We show with two different methods that frequency spectra from air
shower radio emission can be reconstructed on event-by-event basis, with only
two dozen dipole antennae simultaneously over a broad range of frequencies.
According to the obtained spectral slopes, the maximum power is emitted below
40 MHz. Furthermore, the decrease in power to higher frequencies indicates a
loss in coherence determined by the shower disc thickness. We conclude that a
broader bandwidth, larger collecting area, and longer baselines, as will be
provided by LOFAR, are necessary to further investigate the relation of the
coherence, pulse length, and spectral slope of cosmic ray air showers.Comment: 13 pages, 21 figures. Nigl, A. et al. (LOPES Collaboration),
Frequency spectra of cosmic ray air shower radio emission measured with
LOPES, accepted by A&A on 17/06/200
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