Abstract
A proposed new method for measuring the Cherenkov light from extensive air showers (EAS) of cosmic rays (CR), which allows to determine not only the primary particle energy and angle of arrival, but also the parameters of the shower in the atmosphere - the maximum depth and “age”. For measurements, it is proposed to use Cherenkov light produced by EAS in a ground network of wide-angle telescopes, which are separated from each other by a distance 100-300 m depending on the total number of telescopes operating in coincidence, acting autonomously, or includes a detector of the charged components, radio waves, etc. as part of the EAS. The energy measurement and CR angle of arrival, data on the depth of the maximum and the associated mass of the primary particle generating the EAS is particularly important in the study of galactic cosmic rays for E> 1014 eV, where currently there are no direct measurements of the maximum depth of the EAS.
Highlights
It has been realized that the angular and temporal structure of the Cherenkov light emitted by extensive air shower (EAS) can be used to infer the longitudinal development parameters of the shower [1,2,3,4]
During the field testing of the telescope we had 604 hours of clear moonless nights that yielded 11124 EAS events detected by the scintillator subset of the array, from which 424 events resulted in a nonzero simultaneous signal in the telescope
Common methods in use to find the height in the atmosphere, hm, where the number of EAS particles reaches a maximum, which rely on Cherenkov light detectors, are based on the measurement of the lateral distribution of the photon density and pulse duration[10,11,12]
Summary
It has been realized that the angular and temporal structure of the Cherenkov light emitted by extensive air shower (EAS) can be used to infer the longitudinal development parameters of the shower [1,2,3,4]. The angular distribution of Cherenkov photons from EAS was calculated by V.I. Zatsepin [1] assuming it is determined mainly by that of electrons in the shower. Fomin and Khristiansen proposed [2] to use the pulse shape of the Cherenkov signal, namely the pulse width, to indicate the shower maximum position, xm, in the atmosphere. Experimental measurements of the Cherenkov signal pulse shape were performed initially in Yakutsk and in Haverah Park [3, 4]. A variety of detectors are used for instance, in the Tunka experiment forming an array of Cherenkov detectors m currently m near Lake Baikal [6]
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