"Measurement of Cosmic Rays using Radio Emission from Extensive Air Showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory"

Speaker: 
Christian Glaser
Institution: 
RWTH Aachen Univ.
Date: 
Monday, August 15, 2016
Time: 
3:00 pm
Location: 
NS2 1201
*Please note special location
 

 
ABSTRACT:
 
The Engineering Radio Array (AERA) of the Pierre Auger Observatory–located in western Argentina - is used to detect radio emission from extensive air showers with energies beyond 10^17 eV in the 30 – 80 MHz frequency band. After three phases of deployment, AERA now consists of more than 150 autonomous radio stations with different spacings, covering an area of about 17 km^2. It is located at the same site as other Auger detector extensions enabling combinations with various other measurement techniques.
 
After an introduction of radio emission from air showers covering the state-of-the-art knowledge of the emission mechanisms, I will give an overview of the experimental results obtained with AERA. In particular, I will present the measurement of the radiation energy, i.e., the amount of energy that is emitted from the air shower in the form of radio emission, and its dependence on the cosmic-ray energy by comparing with the measurement of the the well-calibrated Auger surface detector.  Furthermore, I will discuss the prediction of the radiation energy from first-principles calculations that can be used for an absolute calibration of the energy scale of cosmic-ray observatories.
 

 
Host: 
Steven Barwick