Abstract
The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is a radio detector at the Pierre Auger Observatory and it is dedicated to measure the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. AERA is co-located with the underground muon detectors of the Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array (AMIGA). This provides a perfect setup to experimentally test the benefits of combining muons and radio emission for estimating the primary mass. We have investigated this combination using air-shower simulations. We compared the performance for mass separation of this new method to alternative methods in which the electrons and muons are measured with particle detectors at the surface. Forshowers with zenith angles below 50° the new method is of comparable performance, and for showers more inclinedthan 50° it is clearly superior. Therefore, measuring the radio signal in addition to the muons significantly improves the mass sensitivity compared to techniques using solely particle measurements.
Highlights
To reveal the origin of high- and ultra-high energy cosmic rays, mass dependent measurements of the energy spectrum and arrival directions are of prime importance
We have developed a novel technique to estimate the mass of cosmic rays by combining measurements of muons and the radio emission to estimate the mass of the primary cosmic rays
We studied the influence of the detector responses of AMIGA and Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) to the mass separation power and combined measurements of AMIGA and AERA for the first time
Summary
To reveal the origin of high- and ultra-high energy cosmic rays, mass dependent measurements of the energy spectrum and arrival directions are of prime importance. Cosmic rays at these energies are measured via extensive air showers they induce in the atmosphere. The radio emission is measured by AERA, consisting of a radio antenna array [3] Both detectors are co-located and measure cosmic ray air showers above an energy of 1017.5 eV. We investigated the power of the muon-radio combination to separate air showers induced by proton and iron nuclei, using CORSIKA simulations and the hadronic model QGSJETII-04. Ρ6μ00 / SρRθD in m−2eV−1/2 at 1 EeV figure of merit proton-iron separation power
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