The Tunka Radio Extension (Tunka-Rex): Status and First Results (ICRC 2013)

TL;DR

Tunka-Rex is a newly operational radio antenna array in Siberia that measures high-energy air showers and aims to calibrate radio detection methods against air-Cherenkov measurements for improved cosmic ray analysis.

Contribution

It is the first hybrid setup combining radio and air-Cherenkov measurements for the same air-shower events, enabling cross-calibration and enhanced precision.

Findings

Tunka-Rex detects radio emissions from air showers.

The array is sensitive to the energy of air showers.

First results show successful measurement of radio signals.

Abstract

Tunka-Rex is a new radio antenna array which extends the Tunka experiment in Siberia close to lake Baikal. It consists of 20 antennas on an area of 1 km^2 which measure the radio emission of high-energy air showers. Tunka-Rex is triggered by the photomultiplier array of Tunka measuring air-Cherenkov light of air showers in the energy range from about 10 PeV to 1 EeV. This configuration allows for the worldwide first hybrid measurements of the radio and air-Cherenkov signal for the same events: an ideal situation to perform a cross-calibration between both methods. Consequently, the main goal of Tunka-Rex is to determine the achievable energy and Xmax precision of radio measurements by comparing them to the reconstruction of the air-Cherenkov measurements. Tunka-Rex started operation in autumn 2012, and already detected air-shower events. In this paper we present the status of Tunka-Rex and first results which indicate that Tunka-Rex measures indeed the radio emission by air showers and that is is sensitive to their energy.