Mass sensitivity in the radio lateral distribution function
Abstract
Measuring the mass composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is one of the main tasks in the cosmic rays field. Here we are exploring the composition signature in the coherent electromagnetic emission from extensive air showers, detected in the MHz frequency range. One of the experiments that successfully detects radio events in the frequency band of 40-80 MHz is the LOPES experiment at KIT. It is a digital interferometric antenna array and has the important advantage of taking data in coincidence with the particle detector array KASCADE-Grande. A possible method to look at the composition signature in the radio data, predicted by simulations, concerns the radio lateral distribution function, since its slope is strongly correlated with Xmax. Recent comparison between REAS3 simulations and LOPES data showed a significantly improved agreement in the lateral distribution function and for this reason an analysis on a possible LOPES mass signature through the slope method is promising. Trying to reproduce a realistic case, proton and iron showers are simulated with REAS3 using the LOPES selection information as input parameters. The obtained radio lateral distribution slope is analyzed in detail. The lateral slope method to look at the composition signature in the radio data is shown here and a possible signature of mass composition in the LOPES data is discussed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1308.0046,
title = {Mass sensitivity in the radio lateral distribution function},
author = {W. D. Apel and J. C. Arteaga and L. Bähren and K. Bekk and M. Bertaina and P. L. Biermann and J. Blümer and H. Bozdog and I. M. Brancus and P. Buchholz and E. Cantoni and A. Chiavassa and K. Daumiller and V. de Souza and F. Di Pierro and P. Doll and R. Engel and H. Falcke and M. Finger and B. Fuchs and D. Fuhrmann and H. Gemmeke and C. Grupen and A. Haungs and D. Heck and J. R. Hörandel and A. Horneffer and D. Huber and T. Huege and P. G. Isar and K. H. Kampert and D. Kang and O. Krömer and J. Kuijpers and K. Link and P. Łuczak and M. Ludwig and H. J. Mathes and M. Melissas and C. Morello and J. Oehlschläger and N. Palmieri and T. Pierog and J. Rautenberg and H. Rebel and M. Roth and C. Rühle and A. Saftoiu and H. Schieler and A. Schmid and F. G. Schröder and O. Sima and G. Toma and G. C. Trinchero and A. Weindl and J. Wochele and M. Wommer and J. Zabierowski and J. A. Zensus},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1308.0046},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
7 pages, 5 figures