A Scintillator and Radio Enhancement of the IceCube Surface Detector Array

An upgrade of the present IceCube surface array (IceTop) with scintillation detectors and possibly radio antennas is foreseen. The enhanced array will calibrate the impact of snow accumulation on the reconstruction of cosmic-ray showers detected by IceTop as well as improve the veto capabilities of the surface array. In addition, such a hybrid surface array of radio antennas, scintillators and Cherenkov tanks will enable a number of complementary science targets for IceCube such as enhanced accuracy to mass composition of cosmic rays, search for PeV photons from the Galactic Center, or more thorough tests of the hadronic interaction models. Two prototype stations with 7 scintillation detectors each have been already deployed at the South Pole in January 2018. These R&D studies provide a window of opportunity to integrate radio antennas with minimal effort.Comment: 6 pages, conference proceedings of UHECR 201

Recent European Developments in Helicopters

Descriptions are given of two captured helicopters, one driven by electric power, the other by a gasoline engine. An account is given of flight tests of the gasoline powered vehicle. After 15 successful flight tests, the gasoline powered vehicle crashed due to the insufficient thrust. Also discussed here are the applications of helicopters for military observations, for meteorological work, and for carrying radio antennas

A lunar base for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)

The possibilities of using lanar based radio antennas in search of intelligent extraterrestrial communications is explored. The proposed NASA search will have two search modes: (1) An all sky survey covering the frequency range from 1 to 10 GHz; and (2) A high sensitivity targeted search listening for signals from the approx. 800 solar type stars within 80 light years of the Sun, and covering 1 to 3 GHz

Precision surveying using very long baseline interferometry

Radio interferometry measurements were used to measure the vector baselines between large microwave radio antennas. A 1.24 km baseline in Massachusetts between the 36 meter Haystack Observatory antenna and the 18 meter Westford antenna of Lincoln Laboratory was measured with 5 mm repeatability in 12 separate experiments. Preliminary results from measurements of the 3,928 km baseline between the Haystack antenna and the 40 meter antenna at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory in California are presented

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

Combined LOPES and KASCADE-Grande Data Analysis

First analyses of coincident data of the LOPES (LOfar PrototypE Station) radio antennas with the particle air shower experiment KASCADE-Grande show basic correlations in the observed shower parameters, like the strength of the radio signal and the particle number, or comparing the estimated shower directions. In addition, an improvement of the experimental resolution of the shower parameters reconstructed by KASCADE-Grande can be obtained by including the data of the radio antennas. This important feature will be shown in this article explicitely by an example event.Comment: 5 pages, Proceedings of International Workshop on Acoustic and Radio EeV Neutrino detection Activities: ARENA, May 17-19, 2005, DESY Zeuthe

Estimation of XmaxX_\mathrm{max} for air showers measured at IceCube with elevated radio antennas of a prototype surface station

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the geographic South Pole is, with its surface and in-ice detectors, used for both neutrino and cosmic-ray physics. The surface array, named IceTop, consists of ice-Cherenkov tanks grouped in 81 pairs spanning a 1 km$^2$ area. An enhancement of the surface array, composed of elevated scintillation panels and radio antennas, was designed over the last years in order to increase the scientific capabilities of IceTop. The surface radio antennas, in particular, will be able to reconstruct $X_\mathrm{max}$, an observable widely used to determine the mass composition of cosmic rays. A complete prototype station of this enhanced array was deployed in the Austral summer of 2019/20 at the South Pole. This station comprises three antennas and eight scintillation panels, arranged in a three-arms star shape. The nominal frequency band of the radio antennas is 70 to 350 MHz. In this work, we use a state-of-the-art reconstruction method in which observed events are compared directly to CoREAS simulations to obtain an estimation of the air-shower variables, in particular, energy and $X_\mathrm{max}$. We will show the results in this unique frequency band using the three prototype antennas.Comment: Presented at the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2023). See arXiv:2307.13047 for all IceCube contribution

Galaxy-Targeting Approach Optimized for Finding the Radio Afterglows of Gravitational Wave Sources

Kilonovae and radio afterglows of neutron star merger events have been identified as the two most promising counterparts, of these gravitational wave sources, that can provide arcsecond localization. While several new and existing optical search facilities have been dedicated to finding kilonovae, factors such as dust obscuration and the daytime sky may thwart these searches in a significant fraction of gavitational wave events. Radio-only searches, being almost immune to these factors, are equally capable of finding the counterparts and in fact offer a complementary discovery approach, despite the modest fields of view for many of the present-day radio interferometers. Such interferometers will be able to carry out competitive searches for the electromagnetic counterparts through the galaxy targeting approach. Adapting and improving on an existing algorithm by Rana et al. 2017. we present here a method that optimizes the placement of radio antenna pointings, integration time, and antenna slew. We simulate 3D gravitational wave localizations to find the efficacy of our algorithm; with substantial improvements in slew overhead and containment probability coverage, our algorithm performs significantly better than simple galaxy-rank-ordered observations. We propose that telescopes such as the Very Large Array, MeerKAT, Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Gaint Meterwave Radio Telescope, having fields of view $\lesssim$1 deg$^2$ and searching for the counterparts of nearby GW events over tens of square degrees or larger, will especially benefit from this optimized galaxy-targeting approach for electromagnetic counterpart searches.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, Submitted to Ap