Monte Carlo simulations of radio pulses in atmospheric showers using ZHAireS

We present predictions for the radio pulses emitted by extensive air showers using ZHAireS, an AIRES-based Monte Carlo code that takes into account the full complexity of ultra-high energy cosmic-ray induced shower development in the atmosphere, and allows the calculation of the electric field in both the time and frequency domains. We do not presuppose any emission mechanism and our results are compatible with a superposition of geomagnetic and charge excess radio emission effects. We investigate the polarization of the electric field as well as the effects of the refractive index n and shower geometry on the radio pulses. We show that geometry, coupled to the relativistic effects that appear when using a realistic refractive index n > 1, play a prominent role on the radio emission of air showers.     

Evidence for the charge-excess contribution in air shower radio emission observed by the CODALEMA experiment

CODALEMA is one of the pioneer experiments dedicated to the radio detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR), located at the radio observatory of Nançay (France). The CODALEMA experiment uses both a particle detector array and a radio antenna array. Data from both detection systems have been used to determine the ground coordinates of the core of extensive air showers (EAS). We discuss the observed systematic shift of the core positions determined with these two detection techniques. We show that this shift is due to the charge-excess contribution to the total radio emission of air showers, using the simulation code SELFAS. The dependences of the radio core shift to the primary cosmic ray characteristics are studied in details. The observation of this systematic shift can be considered as an experimental signature of the charge excess contribution.     

Coherent Cherenkov radio pulses from hadronic showers up to EeV energies

The Cherenkov radio pulse emitted by hadronic showers of energies in the EeV range in ice is calculated for the first time using full three dimensional simulations of both shower development and the coherent radio pulse emitted as the excess charge develops in the shower. A Monte Carlo, ZHAireS, has been developed for this purpose combining the high energy hadronic interaction capabilities of AIRES, and the dense media propagation capabilities of TIERRAS, with the precise low energy tracking and specific algorithms developed to calculate the radio emission in ZHS. A thinning technique is implemented to allow the simulation of radio pulses induced by showers up to 10 EeV in ice. The code is validated comparing the results for electromagnetic and hadronic showers to those obtained with GEANT4 and ZHS codes. The contribution to the pulse of other shower particles in addition to electrons and positrons, mainly protons, pions and muons, is found to be below 3% for 10 PeV and above proton induced showers. The characteristics of hadronic showers and the corresponding Cherenkov frequency spectra are compared with those from purely electromagnetic showers. The dependence of the spectra on shower energy and high-energy hadronic model is addressed and parameterizations for the radio emission in hadronic showers in ice are given for practical applications.     

Simulations of reflected radio signals from cosmic ray induced air showers

We present the calculation of coherent radio pulses emitted by extensive air showers induced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays accounting for reflection on the Earth’s surface. Results have been obtained with a simulation program that calculates the contributions from shower particles after reflection at a surface plane. The properties of the radiation are discussed in detail emphasizing the effects of reflection. The shape of the frequency spectrum is shown to be closely related to the angle of the observer with respect to shower axis, becoming hardest in the Cherenkov direction. The intensity of the flux at a fixed observation angle is shown to scale with the square of the primary particle energy to very good accuracy indicating the coherent aspect of the emission. The simulation methods of this paper provide the foundations for energy reconstruction of experiments looking at the Earth from balloons and satellites. They can also be used in dedicated studies of existing and future experimental proposals.     

A parameterization for the radio emission of air showers as predicted by CoREAS simulations and applied to LOFAR measurements

Measuring radio emission from air showers provides excellent opportunities to directly measure all air shower properties, including the shower development. To exploit this in large-scale experiments, a simple and analytic parameterization of the distribution of the radio signal at ground level is needed. Data taken with the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) show a complex two-dimensional pattern of pulse powers, which is sensitive to the shower geometry. Earlier parameterizations of the lateral signal distribution have proven insufficient to describe these data. In this article, we present a parameterization derived from air-shower simulations. We are able to fit the two-dimensional distribution with a double Gaussian, requiring five fit parameters. All parameters show strong correlations with air shower properties, such as the energy of the shower, the arrival direction, and the shower maximum. We successfully apply the parameterization to data taken with LOFAR and discuss implications for air shower experiments.     

Prospects for radio detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos

The origin and nature of the highest energy cosmic ray events is currently the subject of intense investigation by giant air shower arrays and fluorescent detectors. These particles reach energies well beyond what can be achieved in ground-based particle accelerators and hence they are fundamental probes for particle physics as well as astrophysics. One of the main topics today focuses on the high energy end of the spectrum and the potential for the production of high-energy neutrinos. Above about 10²⁰ eV cosmic rays from extragalactic sources are expected to be severely attenuated by pion photoproduction interactions with photons of the cosmic microwave background. Investigating the shape of the cosmic ray spectrum near this predicted cut-off will be very important. In addition, a significant high-energy neutrino background is naturally expected as part of the pion decay chain which also contains much information.Because of the scarcity of these high-energy particles, larger and larger ground-based detectors have been built. The new generation of digital radio telescopes may play an important role in this, if properly designed. Radio detection of cosmic ray showers has a long history but was abandoned in the 1970s. Recent experimental developments together with sophisticated air shower simulations incorporating radio emission give a clearer understanding of the relationship between the air shower parameters and the radio signal, and have led to resurgence in its use. Observations of air showers by the SKA could, because of its large collecting area, contribute significantly to measuring the cosmic ray spectrum at the highest energies. Because of the large surface area of the moon, and the expected excellent angular resolution of the SKA, using the SKA to detect radio Cherenkov emission from neutrino-induced cascades in lunar regolith will be potentially the most important technique for investigating cosmic ray origin at energies above the photoproduction cut-off.     

Coherent synchrotron emission from cosmic ray air showers

Coherent synchrotron emission by particles moving along semi-infinite tracks is discussed, with a specific application to radio emission from air showers induced by high-energy cosmic rays. It is shown that in general, radiation from a particle moving along a semi-infinite orbit consists of usual synchrotron emission and modified impulsive bremsstrahlung. The latter component is due to the instantaneous onset of the curved trajectory of the emitting particle at its creation. Inclusion of the bremsstrahlung leads to broadening of the radiation pattern and a slower decay of the spectrum at the cut-off frequency than the conventional synchrotron emission. Possible implications of these features for air shower radio emission are discussed.     

The shape of the radio wavefront of extensive air showers as measured with LOFAR

Extensive air showers, induced by high energy cosmic rays impinging on the Earth’s atmosphere, produce radio emission that is measured with the LOFAR radio telescope. As the emission comes from a finite distance of a few kilometers, the incident wavefront is non-planar. A spherical, conical or hyperbolic shape of the wavefront has been proposed, but measurements of individual air showers have been inconclusive so far. For a selected high-quality sample of 161 measured extensive air showers, we have reconstructed the wavefront by measuring pulse arrival times to sub-nanosecond precision in 200 to 350 individual antennas. For each measured air shower, we have fitted a conical, spherical, and hyperboloid shape to the arrival times. The fit quality and a likelihood analysis show that a hyperboloid is the best parameterization. Using a non-planar wavefront shape gives an improved angular resolution, when reconstructing the shower arrival direction. Furthermore, a dependence of the wavefront shape on the shower geometry can be seen. This suggests that it will be possible to use a wavefront shape analysis to get an additional handle on the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum, which is sensitive to the mass of the primary particle.     

Cherenkov τ shower earth-skimming method for PeV–EeV ντ observation with Ashra

We describe a method of observation for PeV–EeV τ neutrinos using Cherenkov light from the air showers of decayed τs produced by τ neutrino interactions in the Earth. Aiming for the realization of neutrino astronomy utilizing the Earth-skimming τ neutrino detection technique, highly precise determination of arrival direction is key due to the following issues: (1) clear identification of neutrinos by identifying those vertices originating within the Earth’s surface and (2) identification of very high energy neutrino sources. The Ashra detector uses newly developed light collectors which realize both a 42°-diameter field-of-view and arcminute resolution. Therefore, it has superior angular resolution for imaging Cherenkov air showers. In this paper, we estimate the sensitivity of and cosmic-ray background resulting from application of the Ashra-1 Cherenkov τ shower observation method. Both data from a commissioning run and a long-term observation (with fully equipped trigger system and one light collector) are presented. Our estimates are based on a detailed Monte Carlo simulation which describes all relevant shower processes from neutrino interaction to Cherenkov photon detection produced by τ air showers. In addition, the potential to determine the arrival direction of Cherenkov showers is evaluated by using the maximum likelihood method. We conclude that the Ashra-1 detector is a unique probe into detection of very high energy neutrinos and their accelerators.     

Wavelet imaging cleaning method for atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes

We present a new method of image cleaning for imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The method is based on the utilization of wavelets to identify noise pixels in images of gamma-ray and hadronic induced air showers. This method selects more signal pixels with Cherenkov photons than traditional image processing techniques. In addition, the method is equally efficient at rejecting pixels with noise alone. The inclusion of more signal pixels in an image of an air shower allows for a more accurate reconstruction, especially at lower gamma-ray energies that produce low levels of light. We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations of gamma-ray and hadronic air showers which show improved angular resolution using this cleaning procedure. Data from the Whipple Observatory's 10-m telescope are utilized to show the efficacy of the method for extracting a gamma-ray signal from the background of hadronic generated images.     

Searching for tau neutrinos with Cherenkov telescopes

Cherenkov telescopes have the capability of detecting high energy tau neutrinos in the energy range of 1–1000 PeV by searching for very inclined showers. If a tau lepton, produced by a tau neutrino, escapes from the Earth or a mountain, it will decay and initiate a shower in the air which can be detected by an air shower fluorescence or Cherenkov telescope. In this paper, we present detailed Monte Carlo simulations of corresponding event rates for the VERITAS and two proposed Cherenkov Telescope Array sites: Meteor Crater and Yavapai Ranch, which use representative AGN neutrino flux models and take into account topographic conditions of the detector sites. The calculated neutrino sensitivities depend on the observation time and the shape of the energy spectrum, but in some cases are comparable or even better than corresponding neutrino sensitivities of the IceCube detector. For VERITAS and the considered Cherenkov Telescope Array sites the expected neutrino sensitivities are up to factor 3 higher than for the MAGIC site because of the presence of surrounding mountains.     

Near-field effects of Cherenkov radiation induced by ultra high energy cosmic neutrinos

The radio approach based on the Askaryan effect for detecting the ultra-high energy cosmic neutrinos has become a mature experimental technique. So far the existing calculations of the Cherenkov radiation associated with the Askaryan effect has been mostly based on the far-field approximation, whose validity maybe challenged when the detector is close to the event. In this paper we present an alternative approach to calculate the Cherenkov pulse by a numerical code based on the finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method. This approach has the advantage of providing the solution everywhere in space, contrary to other methods that rely on the far-field approximation. We also present a one-dimensional theoretical model for the shower with analytical solution, which helps to elucidate our nonzero-width simulation results. We show that for a shower with symmetric longitudinal development, the resulting near-field waveform would be asymmetric in time. In addition, we demonstrate that for a shower elongated by the LPM (Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal) effect and thus with a multi-peak structure, a bipolar, asymmetric waveform is still preserved in the near-field regime irrespective of the specific variations of the multi-peak structure, which makes it a generic, distinctive feature. This should provide an important characteristic signature for the identification of ultra-high energy cosmogenic neutrinos.     

Measurement of the cosmic ray composition at the knee with the SPASE-2/AMANDA-B10 detectors

The mass composition of high-energy cosmic rays at energies above 10¹⁵ eV can provide crucial information for the understanding of their origin. Air showers were measured simultaneously with the SPASE-2 air shower array and the AMANDA-B10 Cherenkov telescope at the South Pole. This combination has the advantage to sample almost all high-energy shower muons and is thus a new approach to the determination of the cosmic ray composition. The change in the cosmic ray mass composition was measured versus existing data from direct measurements at low energies. Our data show an increase of the mean log atomic mass lnA by about 0.8 between 500 TeV and 5 PeV. This trend of an increasing mass through the “knee” region is robust against a variety of systematic effects.     

Coherent radio emission from cosmic ray air-showers in the turbulent atmosphere

Coherent electromagnetic erenkov radiation is produced by cosmic ray air showers passing through the atmosphere. This radiation is detected by radio telescopes. We demonstrate here that the effect of random spatial fluctuations in the refractive index of air, about a mean exceeding unity, causes the airshower to emit not only the spontaneous coherent radio emission described elsewhere by Kahn and Lerche, but also an induced radiation field which can exceed the spontaneous field in certain frequency bands. Further the conditions for emission of the coherent radio erenkov radiation are altered by the presence of the refractive index fluctuations. And the Earth's magnetic field gives rise to the dominant term in the far-field radiation, be it spontaneous or induced, since it causes a systematic separation of electrons and positrons in the shower which, for parameters currently acceptable for air showers, is the major factor in determining the far-field radiation pattern. Also we suggest that the coherent 500 Mc/sec radiation seen from occasional showers is probably a reflection of an atmospheric correlation length of order 15 cm at the time the shower passes through the atmosphere.     

A proposed method for measurement of cosmic-ray mass composition based on geomagnetic spectroscopy

The effect of the geomagnetic Lorentz force on the muon component of extensive air shower (EAS) has been studied in a Monte Carlo generated simulated data sample. This geomagnetic field affects the paths of muons in an EAS, causing a local contrast or polar asymmetry in the abundance of positive and negative muons about the shower axis. The asymmetry can be approximately expressed as a function of transverse separation between the positive and negative muons barycentric positions in the EAS through opposite quadrants across the shower core in the shower front plane. In the present study, it is found that the transverse muon barycenter separation and its maximum value obtained from the polar variation of the parameter are higher for iron primaries than protons for highly inclined showers. Hence, in principle, these parameters can be exploited to the measurement of primary cosmic-ray mass composition. Possibility of practical realization of the proposed method in a real experiment is briefly discussed.     

A Monte Carlo template based analysis for air-Cherenkov arrays

We present a high-performance event reconstruction algorithm: an Image Pixel-wise fit for Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (ImPACT). The reconstruction algorithm is based around the likelihood fitting of camera pixel amplitudes to an expected image template. A maximum likelihood fit is performed to find the best-fit shower parameters. A related reconstruction algorithm has already been shown to provide significant improvements over traditional reconstruction for both the CAT and H.E.S.S. experiments. We demonstrate a significant improvement to the template generation step of the procedure, by the use of a full Monte Carlo air shower simulation in combination with a ray-tracing optics simulation to more accurately model the expected camera images. This reconstruction step is combined with an MVA-based background rejection.Examples are shown of the performance of the ImPACT analysis on both simulated and measured (from a strong VHE source) gamma-ray data from the H.E.S.S. array, demonstrating an improvement in sensitivity of more than a factor two in observation time over traditional image moments-fitting methods, with comparable performance to previous likelihood fitting analyses. ImPACT is a particularly promising approach for future large arrays such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) due to its improved high-energy performance and suitability for arrays of mixed telescope types.     

超高能宇宙线大气簇射平均纵向发展曲线的测量（英文）

利用HiRes宇宙线实验的观测数据,通过扣除测量信号中的切仑科夫光成份,测量了广延大气簇射的纵向发展曲线。把所有的纵向发展曲线归一并且平均,获得平均纵向发展曲线。根据所得曲线,检验了3个簇射模型,它们都能较好地描述纵向发展曲线。如果利用高斯函数来描述簇射的纵向发展曲线,发现纵向发展曲线的宽度（σ）与簇射发展最大的深度有一定的关联,而且该参量从1017eV到1020 eV能量范围内几乎保持不变。另外还对平均纵向发展曲线的不确定性进行了讨论。