Antennas for the detection of radio emission pulses from cosmic-ray induced air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory

THE PIERRE AUGER OBSERVATORY (PATRICIA HANSEN PERTENECE A LA COLABORACION)

JOURNAL OF INSTRUMENTATION

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2012 vol. 7 p. 1 - 7

1748-0221

The Pierre Auger Observatory is exploring the potential of the radio detection techniqueto study extensive air showers induced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. The Auger EngineeringRadio Array (AERA) addresses both technological and scientific aspects of the radiotechnique. A first phase of AERA has been operating since September 2010 with detector stationsobserving radio signals at frequencies between 30 and 80 MHz. In this paper we present comparativestudies to identify and optimize the antenna design for the final configuration of AERAconsisting of 160 individual radio detector stations. The transient nature of the air shower signal requiresa detailed description of the antenna sensor. As the ultra-wideband reception of pulses is notwidely discussed in antenna literature, we review the relevant antenna characteristics and enhancetheoretical considerations towards the impulse response of antennas including polarization effectsand multiple signal reflections. On the basis of the vector effective length we study the transientresponse characteristics of three candidate antennas in the time domain. Observing the variation ofthe continuous galactic background intensity we rank the antennas with respect to the noise leveladded to the galactic signal.