Cosmic ray tracking — a new approach to high-energy γ-astronomy

Abstract

The CRT (Cosmic Ray Tracking) project [1] proposes a new type of extensive air shower (EAS)-array. About 400 drift chambers of the TPC type will allow the tracking of individual shower electrons. This results in an angular resolution for air showers of σ 0 < 0.3°. In combination with a low energy threshold of a few 10 12 eV the angular measurement can be calibrated absolutely by observing the cosmic ray shadow of the moon. We present the design and construction of the first full size detector module and report on the results on the detailed tests of a half size prototype.