Longitudinal Shower Profile Reconstruction from Fluorescence and Cherenkov Light

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method for reconstructing longitudinal shower profiles by simultaneously utilizing fluorescence and Cherenkov light signals, leveraging their universality to improve accuracy in cosmic ray experiments.

Contribution

The paper proposes a new analytic least-square based reconstruction method that combines fluorescence and Cherenkov light signals, challenging the traditional background treatment approach.

Findings

Simultaneous use of fluorescence and Cherenkov light enhances shower profile reconstruction.

Analytic least-square solution provides an efficient estimation method.

Profile extrapolation with Gaisser-Hillas function improves accuracy.

Abstract

Traditionally, longitudinal shower profiles are reconstructed in fluorescence light experiments by treating the Cherenkov light contribution as background. Here we will argue that, due to universality of the energy spectra of electrons and positrons, both fluorescence and Cherenkov light can be used simultaneously as signal to infer the longitudinal shower development. We present a new profile reconstruction method that is based on the analytic least-square solution for the estimation of the shower profile from the observed light signal and discuss the extrapolation of the profile with a Gaisser-Hillas function.