Tunka-Rex: a Radio Antenna Array for the Tunka Experiment (ARENA 2012)

TL;DR

Tunka-Rex is a cost-effective radio antenna array integrated with the Tunka experiment to improve cosmic-ray air shower measurements, enabling cross-calibration with Cherenkov signals and potentially increasing observation time and precision.

Contribution

This paper introduces the Tunka-Rex radio array, demonstrating its integration with Tunka and its potential to enhance cosmic-ray detection and calibration methods.

Findings

Successful deployment of 20 antennas at Tunka

Potential to increase observation time by an order of magnitude

Cost-effective design using SALLA antennas

Abstract

Tunka-Rex, the Tunka radio extension, is an array of 20 antennas at the Tunka experiment close to Lake Baikal in Siberia. It started operation on 08 October 2012. The antennas are connected directly to the data acquisition of the Tunka main detector, a 1 square-km large array of 133 non-imaging photomultipliers observing the Cherenkov light of air showers in dark and clear nights. This allows to cross-calibrate the radio signal with the air-Cherenkov signal of the same air showers - in particular with respect to the energy and the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum, Xmax. Consequently, we can test whether in rural regions with low radio background the practically achievable radio precision comes close to the precision of the established fluorescence and air-Cherenkov techniques. At a mid-term perspective, due to its higher duty-cycle, Tunka-Rex can enhance the effective observing time of Tunka by an order of magnitude, at least in the interesting energy range above 100 PeV. Moreover, Tunka-Rex is very cost-effective, e.g., by using economic Short Aperiodic Loaded Loop Antennas (SALLAs). Thus, the results of Tunka-Rex and the comparison to other sophisticated radio arrays will provide crucial input for future large-scale cosmic-ray observatories, for which measurement precision as well as costs per area have to be optimized. In this paper we shortly describe the Tunka-Rex setup and discuss the technical and scientific goals of Tunka-Rex.