scholarly journals Determination of Zenith Angle Dependence of Incoherent Cosmic Ray Muon Flux Using Smartphones of the CREDO Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1185
Author(s):  
Michał Karbowiak ◽  
Tadeusz Wibig ◽  
David Alvarez Castillo ◽  
Dmitriy Beznosko ◽  
Alan R. Duffy ◽  
...  

The Cosmic-Ray Extremely Distributed Observatory (CREDO) was established to detect and study ultra high-energy cosmic ray particles. In addition to making use of traditional methods for finding rare and extended cosmic ray events such as professional-grade Extensive Air Shower (EAS) arrays, as well as educational ‘class-room’ detectors, CREDO also makes use of cameras in smartphones as particle detectors. Beyond the primary scientific goal of the CREDO project, to detect Cosmic Ray Ensembles, is the equally important educational goal of the project. To use smartphones for EAS detection, it is necessary to demonstrate that they are capable of effectively registering relativistic charged particles. In this article, we show that the events recorded in the CREDO project database are indeed tracing incoherent cosmic ray muons. The specific observed distribution of zenith angle of charged particle direction corresponds to that expected for muons. It is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine different mechanisms leading to such a distribution, and we believe it clearly demonstrates the suitability of smartphone-based detectors in supporting the more traditional cosmic ray detectors.

2019 ◽  
Vol 216 ◽  
pp. 02012
Author(s):  
T. Marshalkina ◽  
P.A. Bezyazeekov ◽  
N.M. Budnev ◽  
D. Chernykh ◽  
O. Fedorov ◽  
...  

The Tunka Radio Extension (Tunka-Rex) is a digital antenna array for the detection of radio emission from cosmic-ray air showers in the frequency band of 30 to 80 MHz and for primary energies above 100 PeV. The standard analysis of Tunka-Rex includes events with zenith angle of up to 50?. This cut is determined by the efficiency of the external trigger. However, due to the air-shower footprint increasing with zenith angle and due to the more efficient generation of radio emission (the magnetic field in the Tunka valley is almost vertical), there are a number of ultra-high-energy inclined events detected by Tunka-Rex. In this work we present a first analysis of a subset of inclined events detected by Tunka-Rex. We estimate the energies of the selected events and test the efficiency of Tunka-Rex antennas for detection of inclined air showers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2105 (1) ◽  
pp. 012018
Author(s):  
S Nonis ◽  
A Leisos ◽  
A Tsirigotis ◽  
G Bourlis ◽  
K Papageorgiou ◽  
...  

Abstract The Astroneu cosmic ray telescope is a distributed hybrid array consisting of both scintillator counters and RF antenna detectors used for the detection of extensive air showers (EAS). The array is deployed at the Hellenic Open University campus, on the outskirts of the urban area of Patras in Greece. In the present development phase, the Astroneu telescope includes two stations consisting of 3 scintillation detectors modules (SDM) and one RF antenna while a third station includes 3 particle detectors and 4 RF antennas (3SDM-4RF). In each station, the RF-detectors are operating receiving a common trigger upon a 3-fold coincidence between the particle detectors of the station. In this study we present recent results from the 3SDM-4RF autonomous station related to the estimation of the direction of the incoming cosmic air shower using only the timing information from the 4 RF detectors. The directions of the reconstructed showers using the RF timing are in agreement with the corresponding results using the SDMs timing as well as with the simulation predictions. This verifies that the RF signal emitted from EAS originating form Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR), can be detected even in areas with strong electromagnetic background.


1984 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 586-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Protheroe ◽  
R. W. Clay

Recently, a new branch of astronomy has emerged following the detection of ultra-high energy (UHE) γ-ray emission from Cygnus X-3 by Samorski and Stamm (1983). This discovery was made using the extensive air shower (EAS) array of the University of Kiel, Germany. Such arrays are designed to detect EAS, the cascades of secondary particles (mainly electrons and protons), which are generated in the atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic ray nuclei of energy greater than ˜ 1015 eV. These arrays are also sensitive to EAS initiated by primary γ-rays and, depending on their design, have angular resolutions as good as the SAS-II and COS-B γ-ray telescopes which operated at ˜ 100 MeV energies. At present, there is no effective way to veto proton or nucleus-initiated EAS and so one must look for a significant excess of EAS from within a cone of resolution centred on a suspected source direction.


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (29) ◽  
pp. 6814-6816
Author(s):  
A. GERANIOS ◽  
E. FOKITIS ◽  
S. MALTEZOS ◽  
K. PATRINOS ◽  
A. DIMOPOULOS

Using the AIRES code, we have generated a large number of Extensive Air Showers corresponding to Ultra high energy cosmic ray gammas, protons and iron nuclei with energy range 1015 – 1022 eV. These simulations clearly show the different atmospheric depths of the Extensive Air Shower maxima in this energy range.


2020 ◽  
Vol 492 (3) ◽  
pp. 3984-3993 ◽  
Author(s):  
R U Abbasi ◽  
M Abe ◽  
T Abu-Zayyad ◽  
M Allen ◽  
R Azuma ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The surface detector (SD) of the Telescope Array (TA) experiment allows us to detect indirectly photons with energies of the order of 1018 eV and higher, and to separate photons from the cosmic ray background. In this paper, we present the results of a blind search for point sources of ultra-high-energy (UHE) photons in the Northern sky using the TA SD data. The photon-induced extensive air showers are separated from the hadron-induced extensive air shower background by means of a multivariate classifier based upon 16 parameters that characterize the air shower events. No significant evidence for the photon point sources is found. The upper limits are set on the flux of photons from each particular direction in the sky within the TA field of view, according to the experiment’s angular resolution for photons. The average 95 per cent confidence level upper-limits for the point-source flux of photons with energies greater than 1018, 1018.5, 1019, 1019.5 and 1020 eV are 0.094, 0.029, 0.010, 0.0073 and 0.0058 km−2yr−1, respectively. For energies higher than 1018.5 eV, the photon point-source limits are set for the first time. Numerical results for each given direction in each energy range are provided as a supplement to this paper.


1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Ciampa ◽  
R. W. Clay ◽  
C. L. Corani ◽  
P. G. Edwards ◽  
J. R. Patterson

AbstractThe Buckland Park air shower array is being developed particularly for use as an ultra-high-energy gamma ray astronomy telescope. The properties of this instrument are described with an emphasis on improvements being made to its angular resolution. Some early data are presented to illustrate the way in which the data obtained will be used.


2019 ◽  
Vol 216 ◽  
pp. 02004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizia Canfora

The mass composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays plays a key role in the understanding of the origins ofthese rare particles. A composition-sensitive observable is the atmospheric depth at which the air shower reaches the maximum number of particles (Xmax). The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) detects the radio emission inthe 30-80 MHz frequency band from extensive air showers with energies larger than 1017 eV. It consists of more than 150 autonomous radio stations covering an area of about 17 km2. From the distribution of signals measured by the antennas, it is possible to estimate Xmax. In this contribution three independent methods for the estimation of Xmax will be presented.


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (29) ◽  
pp. 6869-6871 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. ARDOUIN ◽  
A. BELLETOILE ◽  
D. CHARRIER ◽  
R. DALLIER ◽  
L. DENIS ◽  
...  

We present the characteristics and performance of a demonstration experiment devoted to the observation of ultra high-energy cosmic ray extensive air showers using a radiodetection technique. In a first step, one antenna narrowed band filtered acting as trigger, with a 4σ threshold above sky background-level, was used to tag any radio transient in coincidence on the antenna array. Recently, the addition of 4 particle detectors has allowed us to observe cosmic ray events in coincidence with antennas.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander P. J. van Deursen ◽  
David Fokkema ◽  
Kasper van Dam ◽  
Bob van Eijk

<p>Cosmic ray particles have extreme energies, 10<sup>16</sup> eV/nucleon and up. Upon arrival at the higher atmosphere and collisions with the gas molecules there, the cosmic ray particles convert into an cascade of different secondary particles that finally arrive at soil level in the form of an extensive air shower (EAS): high-energy gamma’s, electrons and muons. In the HIgh School Project on Astrophysics Research with Cosmics (Hisparc, www.hisparc.nl) about 100 EAS detector stations are distributed over the Netherlands and several neighboring countries. These stations are mostly placed on the roof of secondary schools, where they have been built by pupils to attract them towards STEM studies.</p><p>Each station consists of two or four detectors with 0.5 m<sup>2</sup> plastic scintillator plates to record the passage of the EAS. At coincidence, the scintillator signals are individually recorded, accurately timed with GPS. All data are sent to and collected at the NIKHEF institute (www.nikhef.nl) and made available (open-access) for further analysis by pupils and scientists.</p><p>The sensitivity of the detectors is commonly adjusted such that each detector records a few hundred hits per second. The number of coincidences within 1.5 μs is then about 1 in 3 seconds, in part due to an actual EAS, in part due to random local radioactive processes.</p><p>During intense rainfall of a particular summer storm several two-detector systems recorded an increase in the coincidence frequency of up to a factor of 7. When comparing different stations we could follow the associated storm front moving northwards over NL. Within the coincidence interval of 1.5 μs the increased individual signals of both detectors were evenly distributed. Actual EAS signals tend to be synchronous to within 100 ns. We therefor attribute the increase to random signals. As possible source we suggest gamma radiation due to radon daughters in the atmosphere that are washed out by the rain and accumulate on the roof close to the detectors. The delay between rain and signal increase is noted and in accordance with the washing process time.</p>


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