Abstract
THE recent results of Porter et al.1 on detectable polarized radio pulses emitted from extensive air showers cast some serious doubt on the validity of the mechanism for coherent emission suggested by Kahn and Lerche2. This mechanism concluded, on the basis of a simple model, that the separation of positive and negative charges by the Earth's magnetic field should produce an observable polarized (east–west) radio signal of some 60,000 flux units × µsec at 45 Mc/s for a shower containing some 106 electrons and positrons. The primary cosmic ray particle energy was taken to be about 5 × 1015 eV. The purpose of this letter is to point out several effects which are ignored in the treatment of Kahn and Lerche which may play a dominant part in modifying both the intensity and polarization of the coherent signal. These are (i) refractive index variations; (ii) Coulomb scattering; (iii) time variation of the shower front.
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