Abstract
The Auger Engineering Radio Array currently measures MHz radio emission from extensive air showers induced by high energy cosmic rays with 24 self-triggered radio detector stations. Its unique site, embedded into the baseline detectors and extensions of the Pierre Auger Observatory, allows to study air showers in great detail and to calibrate the radio emission. In its final stage AERA will expand to an area of approximately 20km 2 to explore the feasibility of the radio-detection technique for future cosmic-ray detectors. The concept and hardware design of AERA as well as strategies to enable self-triggered radio detection are presented. Radio emission mechanisms are discussed based on polarization analysis of the first AERA data.
Highlights
During the last years significant progress has been made in radio detection of cosmic rays both in experiments and in theoretical calculations
Experiments such as LOPES [1] and CODALEMA [2] use arrays of radio antennas to detect coherent VHF (10÷100 MHz) radio emission from extensive air showers induced by cosmic rays
A sensitivity of the lateral distribution of the pulse amplitude to the chemical composition of the primary cosmic ray was found. Experimental evidence for this phenomenon has recently been observed by the LOPES collaboration [5]. These results suggest that the radio-detection technique, with its high duty cycle close to 100 %, is well suitable for measuring all relevant parameters of cosmic rays
Summary
During the last years significant progress has been made in radio detection of cosmic rays both in experiments and in theoretical calculations. Various approaches such as REAS [3] and MGMR [4] simulate the radio emission from air showers in detail They predict a quadratic scaling of the emitted radio power with the energy of the primary cosmic ray. A sensitivity of the lateral distribution of the pulse amplitude to the chemical composition of the primary cosmic ray was found Experimental evidence for this phenomenon has recently been observed by the LOPES collaboration [5]. The Pierre Auger Observatory follows a hybrid concept to detect ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays via their induced air showers. An array of 1660 water-Cherenkov tanks covering an area of 3000 km detects secondary shower particles at ground level This surface detector array is overseen by 27 fluorescence telescopes at 4 sites which track the emission of fluorescence light during shower development in the atmosphere. Composition measurements in the transition region of galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays
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