Abstract
We present the lastest results and status of the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA), located within the Pierre Auger Observatory. AERA, with more than 150 radio stations spread over 17 km2, is the largest radio detector in the world for extensive air showers above 1017 eV. The electric field emitted by secondary electrons and positrons allows us to estimate all characteristics of the primary cosmic ray: arrival direction, energy and mass composition. The performance of AERA together with the analysis methods are described. The final aim of AERA is mainly to improve the composition estimation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays as a standalone detector or in association with other instruments such as a ground particle detector or a fluorescence telescope.
Highlights
There are many aspects still not fully understood in the field of ultra-high energy cosmic rays
For timing, we use GPS receivers in conjunction with a reference beacon located at the closest fluorescence detector (FD) site and signals emitted by commercial airplanes passing over the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) site
AERA has been running continuously since 2011 and detects air showers measured by the other instruments of the Pierre Auger Observatory providing an ideal observation of showers with 4 different observables
Summary
There are many aspects still not fully understood in the field of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. A clear energy cutoff has been observed in the energy spectrum around 4×1019 eV (see [1,2,3]). The sources are still unidentified as no significant clustering has been discovered at the highest energies and no departure from isotropic expectations are observed at lower energies at any angular scales [4]. Determining the composition could be the missing key to a much better understanding of the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. The uncertainty on the Xmax is of the same order as that achieved using the fluorescence light (∼ 20 g/cm2 [8]) emitted by the atmospheric nitrogen excited by the air shower. A strong asset of the radio technique is its duty cycle of around 100% compared to 14% with a fluorescence telescope [9]
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