Observation of inclined EeV air showers with the radio detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

GARCIA, B (COMO PARTE DE THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION)

JOURNAL OF COSMOLOGY AND ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2018 vol. 2018 p. 1 - 20

1475-7516

Withthe Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) of the Pierre AugerObservatory, we have observed the radio emission from 561 extensiveair showers with zenith angles between 60◦ and84◦.In contrast to air showers with more vertical incidence, theseinclined air showers illuminate large ground areas of several km² withradio signals detectable in the 30 to 80 MHz band. A comparison ofthemeasured radio-signal amplitudes with Monte Carlo simulations of asubset of 50 events for which we reconstruct the energy using theAuger surface detector shows agreement within the uncertainties ofthe current analysis. As expected for forward-beamed radio emissionundergoing no significant absorption or scattering in the atmosphere,the area illuminated by radio signals grows with the zenith angle ofthe air shower. Inclined air showers with EeV energies are thusmeasurable with sparse radio-antenna arrays with grid sizes of a kmor more. This is particularly attractive as radio detection providesdirect access to the energy in the electromagnetic cascade of an airshower, which in case of inclined air showers is not accessible byarrays of particle detectors on the ground.p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115%; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; }