Search for acoustic signals from high energy cascades

Abstract

High energy cosmic ray secondaries can be detected by means of the cascades they produce when they pass through matter. When the charged particles of these cascades ionize the matter they are traveling through, the heat produced and resulting thermal expansion causes a thermoacoustic wave. These sound waves travel at about one hundred-thousandth the speed of light, and should allow an array of acoustic transducers to resolve structure in the cascade to about 1 cm without high speed electronics or segmentation of the detector