Radio detection of cosmic rays in the Pierre Auger Observatory

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development and results of radio detection techniques for cosmic rays at the Pierre Auger Observatory, highlighting its potential for high-duty-cycle measurements and improved cosmic ray characterization.

Contribution

It presents the application of radio detection methods on a large scale at the Pierre Auger Observatory, including experimental results and future plans for an extensive radio detector array.

Findings

Radio detection shows high potential for cosmic ray measurements.

Successful implementation of radio detection at the Pierre Auger Observatory.

Plans for a 20 km^2 radio detector array are underway.

Abstract

In small-scale experiments such as CODALEMA and LOPES, radio detection of cosmic rays has demonstrated its potential as a technique for cosmic ray measurements up to the highest energies. Radio detection promises measurements with high duty-cycle, allows a direction reconstruction with very good angular resolution, and provides complementary information on energy and nature of the cosmic ray primaries with respect to particle detectors at ground and fluorescence telescopes. Within the Pierre Auger Observatory, we tackle the technological and scientific challenges for an application of the radio detection technique on large scales. Here, we report on the results obtained so far using the Southern Auger site and the plans for an engineering array of radio detectors covering an area of ~20 km^2.