Related papers: Cherenkov light imaging in astroparticle physics
Cherenkov techniques are widely used in astroparticle experiments. This article reviews the various detection principles and the corresponding experiments, including some of the physics breakthroughs. In particular, it traces the…
Cascades of charged particles are created when high-energy cosmic rays enter the earth's atmosphere: these 'extensive air-showers' are studied to gain information on the energy spectrum, arrival direction distribution and mass composition…
Cosmic ray detectors use air as a radiator for luminescence. In water and ice, Cherenkov light is the dominant light producing mechanism when the particle's velocity exceeds the Cherenkov threshold, approximately three quarters of the speed…
The Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov technique allows to detect very high energy gamma rays from few tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV using ground-based instrumentation. At these energies a gamma ray generates a shower of secondary particles…
The IceCube neutrino observatory uses $1\,\mathrm{km}^{3}$ of the natural Antarctic ice near the geographic South Pole as optical detection medium. When charged particles, such as particles produced in neutrino interactions, pass through…
As charged particles surpass the speed of light in an optical medium they produce radiation - analogously to the way jet planes surpass the speed of sound and produce a sonic boom. This radiation emission, known as the Cherenkov effect, is…
High energy particles traversing the Universe through the cosmic microwave backgroung radiation can, in principle, emit Cherenkov radiation. It is shown that the energy threshold for this radiation is extremely high and its intensity would…
Electrically charged particles, moving faster than the speed of light in a medium, emit Cherenkov radiation. Theory predicts electric and magnetic dipoles to radiate as well, with a puzzling behavior for magnetic dipoles pointing in…
Cosmic electrons, positrons, protons, and antiprotons carry essential information about both astrophysical processes and fundamental physics. Charged particles provide signatures of dark matter annihilation or decay, \emph{in situ} in the…
The energy-dependent abundance of elements in cosmic rays plays an important role in understanding their acceleration and propagation. Most current results are obtained either from direct measurements by balloon- or satellite-borne…
Cherenkov detectors are in use today in small experiments as well as modern ones as those at the LHC. This short note is about the construction of a small Cherenkov detector with limited resources, which could be used to observe the cosmic…
The study of ultra high energy cosmic rays is a very important scientific problem. It is likely to have a huge impact in our understanding of the universe. Very high energy particles have been observed to hit the Earth whose origin is…
Remote sensing of atmosphere is conventionally done via a study of extinction / scattering of light from natural (Sun, Moon) or artificial (laser) sources. Cherenkov emission from extensive air showers generated by cosmic rays provides one…
In the last ten years, the field of Cherenkov astronomy has become an important contributor to high energy astrophysics with the detection of eight objects at energies above 300 GeV. These observations have advanced our understanding of…
A recently proposed novel technique for the detection of cosmic rays with arrays of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes is applied to data from the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.). The method relies on the ground based…
Imaging Cherenkov detectors are largely used in modern nuclear and particle physics experiments where cutting-edge solutions are needed to face always more growing computing demands. This is a fertile ground for AI-based approaches and at…
Telescopes, designed with semi-conductor based photo sensors, have the potential to detect Cherenkov or fluorescence light emitted by cosmic-rays in the atmosphere. Such telescopes promise a high duty cycle and efficiency in remote harsh…
Understanding the sources, acceleration mechanisms, and propagation of cosmic rays is an active area of research in astro-particle physics. Measuring the spectrum and elemental composition of cosmic rays on earth can help solve this…
Due to their weak interactions, neutrinos can polarize a medium and acquire an induced charge. We consider the Cherenkov radiation emitted by neutrinos due to their effective electromagnetic interactions as they pass through a polarizable…
Neutrino astrophysics offers new perspectives on the Universe investigation: high energy neutrinos, produced by the most energetic phenomena in our Galaxy and in the Universe, carry complementary (if not exclusive) information about the…