Gamma-ray and Cosmic Ray Astrophysics from 10 TeV to 1 EeV with the large-area ($>$10 km$^2$) air-shower Detector SCORE

TL;DR

This paper proposes a large-area air-shower detector, SCORE, to explore cosmic rays and gamma rays from 10 TeV to 1 EeV, aiming to address fundamental questions in astroparticle physics.

Contribution

It introduces the SCORE detector concept, combining wide-angle Cherenkov light sampling with large-area modules to improve measurements in the high-energy cosmic ray and gamma-ray regime.

Findings

Simulation results demonstrate the detector's potential effectiveness.

The design enables sampling of photon density and timing at large distances.

The approach bridges astroparticle and particle physics questions.

Abstract

We propose to explore the so-far poorly measured cosmic ray and gamma-ray sky (accelerator sky) in the energy range from 10 TeV to 1 EeV. New physics questions might be addressed in this last remaining observation window of gamma-ray astronomy. The very high beam-energies provided by Cosmic accelerators and the air-shower detection technique naturally imply an entanglement between fundamental questions of astroparticle physics and particle physics. The new large-area (10 km$^2$) wide-angle (1 sr) air Cherenkov detector SCORE (Study for a Cosmic ORigin Explorer) is based on non-imaging Cherenkov light-front sampling with sensitive large-area detector modules of the order of 1 m$^2$. The lateral photon density and arrival-time distribution will be sampled up to large distances from the shower core. The physics motivations, the detector concept and first simulation results will be presented.