Development of the radio astronomical method of cosmic particle detection for extremely high-energy cosmic ray physics and neutrino astronomy

Igor Zheleznykh,Grigorii Dedenko,Leonid Dedenko,Rustam Dagkesamanskii

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201714511002

Abstract

The proposal to use ground based radio telescopes for detection of Askaryan radio pulses from particle cascades arising when extremely high-energy (EHE > 1020 eV) cosmic rays (including neutrinos) interact with the lunar regolith of multi gigaton mass was made at the end of 1980s in the framework of the Russian (Soviet) DUMAND Program. During more than a quarter of century a number of lunar experiments were carried out mainly in the 1–3 GHz frequency range using the large radio telescopes of Australia, USA, Russia and other countries but these experiments only put upper limits to the EHE cosmic rays fluxes. For this reason, it would be of great interest to search for nanosecond radio pulses from the Moon in a wider interval of frequencies (including lower ones of 100–350 MHz) with larger radio detectors – for example the giant radio telescope SKA (Square Kilometer Array) which is constructed in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In this paper possibilities are discussed to use one of the most sensitive meter-wavelength (∼ 110 MHz) Large Phased Array (LPA) of 187 × 384 m2 and the wide field of view meter-wavelength array of the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory as prototypes of low frequency radio detectors for lunar experiments. The new scheme for fast simulation of ultrahigh and extremely high-energy cascades in dense media is also suggested. This scheme will be used later for calculations of radio emission of cascades in the lunar regolith with energies up to 1020 eV and higher in the wide frequency band of 0.1− a few GHz.

Highlights

In the late fifties – early sixties it was proposed that a number of fundamental problems of Particle Physics and Astrophysics (Astronomy) could be studied using underground installations for detecting high energy (HE) neutrinos produced in the Earth’s atmosphere and in space [1,2,3]
The Moon had been considered as a perspective large-scale target and it was suggested to use large ground-based radio telescopes to search for Cherenkov-Askaryan radio pulses from cascades produced in the lunar regolith by EHE (> 1020 eV) neutrinos and other cosmic particles
The first astrophysical HE neutrinos had been registered by a team of the gigaton optical HE neutrino telescope IceCube in Antarctica in 2013

Summary

Introduction

In the late fifties – early sixties it was proposed that a number of fundamental problems of Particle Physics and Astrophysics (Astronomy) could be studied using underground (underwater) installations for detecting high energy (HE) neutrinos produced in the Earth’s atmosphere and in space [1,2,3]. The goal of the Soviet DUMAND project was the development of the deep underwater optical and acoustical methods of UHE and EHE neutrino detection in the World Ocean (in particular in the Mediterranean Sea) and in Lake Baikal. After experiments performed at the Soviet Antarctic Vostok station, the R&D stage of RAMAND, an ice radio-wave detector with an effective volume up to 10 km was approved in 1988 by the Soviet authorities. The Moon had been considered as a perspective large-scale target and it was suggested to use large ground-based radio telescopes to search for Cherenkov-Askaryan radio pulses from cascades produced in the lunar regolith by EHE (> 1020 eV) neutrinos and other cosmic particles. The possibility to detect radio emission of cascades of lower energies (> 1016 eV) using a lunar satellite was discussed

RAMHAND

Simulations of cascades

Findings

Conclusion