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Abstract: A first measurement of the muon content of air showers using hybrid measurements combining radio and particle detection is presented. For inclined air showers with zenith angles above 60°, the water-Cherenkov detector (WCD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory performs an almost pure measurement of the muonic component, whereas the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) allows reconstructing the electromagnetic energy independently using the radio emission of the air shower. The analysis of more than six years of AERA data shows a deficit of muons predicted by all current-generation hadronic interaction models for energies between 4 EeV and 20 EeV. This deficit, already observed in previous analyses of Auger, is now confirmed for the first time with radio data. This analysis is limited by low statistics of only 59 high-quality events due to the small area of AERA of 17 km² and the high energy threshold of 4 EeV originating from the WCD reconstruction. With the AugerPrime Radio Detector currently being deployed, this analysis can be extended to the highest energies to allow for in-depth tests of hadronic interaction models with large statistics.
Keywords: Pierre Auger Observatory, ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, extensive air showers, engineering radio array
Published in RUNG: 03.10.2024; Views: 421; Downloads: 1
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Abstract: The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA), part of the Pierre Auger Observatory, is currently the largest facility to measure radio emissions from ultra-high energy extensive air showers. It comprises 153 autonomous radio-detector stations, covering an area of 17 km^2, and measures radio waves in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. An accurate description of the detector response is necessary to interpret the data collected by the stations correctly. Previously, this was achieved by measuring the analog chain in the laboratory and simulating and measuring the directional response of the antenna. In this work, we perform an absolute calibration using the continuously monitored sidereal modulation of the diffuse Galactic radio emission. The calibration is performed by comparing the average spectra recorded by the stations with a model of the full radio sky propagated through the system response, including the antenna, filters, and amplifiers. We describe the method to determine the calibration constants for each antenna and present the corresponding results. Furthermore, the behavior of the calibration constants is studied as a function of time. There is no relevant aging effect over a timescale of a decade, which shows that radio detectors could help monitor possible aging effects of other detector systems during long-term operations, stressing their importance in determining an absolute energy scale.
Keywords: pierre auger observatory, auger engineering radio array, ultra-high energy cosmic rays, radio detectors
Published in RUNG: 22.01.2024; Views: 1704; Downloads: 35
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Keywords: Pierre Auger Observatory, Auger Engineering Radio Array, inclined air showers
Published in RUNG: 16.06.2020; Views: 3353; Downloads: 79
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Keywords: cosmic rays (CR), extensive air showers, EAS radio emission, Pierre Auger Observatory, Auger Engineering Radio Array, multi-hybrid CR detection
Published in RUNG: 09.11.2016; Views: 5240; Downloads: 270
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Abstract: The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is an extension of the Pierre Auger Observatory. It is used to detect radio emission from extensive air showers in the 30 - 80 MHz frequency band. A focus of interest is the dependence of the radio emission on shower parameters such as the energy and the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum. After three phases of deployment, AERA now consists of 153 autonomous radio stations with different spacings, covering an area of about 17 km2. The size, station spacings, and geographic location at the same site or near other Auger extensions, are all targeted at cosmic ray energies above 10[sup]17 eV. The array allows us to explore different technical schemes to measure the radio emission as well as to cross calibrate our measurements with the established baseline detectors of the Auger Observatory. We present the most recent technological developments and selected experimental results obtained with AERA.
Keywords: Pierre Auger Observatory, the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA), radio emission from extensive air showers, detector cross-calibration
Published in RUNG: 03.03.2016; Views: 5834; Downloads: 201
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