The HiSCORE Project

M Tluczykont,O Chvalaev,A Skukhin,S Epimakhov,R Nachtigall,R Wischnewski,D Spitschan,Yu Semeney,R Mirgazov,Н М Буднев ,M I Panasyuk ,A N Dyachok ,D Hampf,А Пахоруков ,Г Рубцов ,М Куннас ,Martin Brückner ,D Horns,А Порелли ,L A Kuzmichev ,А Иванова ,Е Е Коростелева ,Р Монхоев ,V Poleschuk,Л Свешникова ,В С Птускин ,E Konstantinov,O Gress,V.v Kozin ,В В Просин ,Petr Satunin ,Н Н Калмыков ,А Загородников ,Б Лубсандоржиев ,V N Zirakashvili

doi:10.14311/app.2014.01.0283

Abstract

A central question of Astroparticle Physics, the origin of cosmic rays, still remains unsolved. HiSCORE (Hundred*i Square-km Cosmic ORigin Explorer) is a concept for a large-area wide-angle non-imaging air shower detector, addressing this question by searching for cosmic ray pevatrons in the energy range from 10TeV to few PeV and cosmic rays in the energy range above 100TeV. In the framework of the Tunka-HiSCORE project, first prototypes have been deployed on the site of the Tunka-133 experiment, where we plan to install an engineering array covering an area of the order of 1km<sup>2</sup>. On the same site, also imaging and particle detectors are planned, potentially allowing a future hybrid detector system. Here we present the HiSCORE detector principle, its potential for cosmic ray origin search and the status of ongoing activities in the framework of the Tunka-HiSCORE experiment.

Highlights

Ever since their discovery, cosmic rays have triggered numerous experiments aiming at answering the questions about cosmic ray composition, spectral distribution, and about their origin
In the framework of the Tunka-HiSCORE project, first prototypes have been deployed on the site of the Tunka-133 experiment, where we plan to install an engineering array covering an area of the order of 1 km[2]
The HiSCORE (Hundred*i Square-km Cosmic ORigin Explorer) concept (Tluczykont et al 2011), is based on the non-imaging air Cherenkov technique, sampling the Cherenkov radiation emitted by charged air shower particles

Summary

Introduction

Cosmic rays have triggered numerous experiments aiming at answering the questions about cosmic ray composition, spectral distribution, and about their origin. Ground-based experiments measure cosmic ray or gamma ray induced air showers via particle or radiation detectors on the ground. The HiSCORE (Hundred*i Square-km Cosmic ORigin Explorer) concept (Tluczykont et al 2011), is based on the non-imaging air Cherenkov technique, sampling the Cherenkov radiation emitted by charged air shower particles. Planned as a distributed array of sensitive light collecting stations (0.5 m2), with a wide field of view (0.60-0.84 sr) and a very large instrumented area (up to 100 km2), HiSCORE will cover gamma ray energies above 10 TeV and spectral and composition measurements of cosmic rays from 100 TeV up to the EeV range. We describe the HiSCORE detector concept, its potential for a search for cosmic ray pevatrons, and the status of Tunka-HiSCORE, currently (April 2013) in its deployment phase on the site of the Tunka-133 experiment (Berezhnev et al 2012)

Detector Concept

Sensitivity

Prototype results

Detector components

Conclusion and Outlook