Comparison of LOPES data and CoREAS simulations using a full detector simulation (ICRC2013)

TL;DR

This paper presents a detailed comparison between LOPES radio emission data and CoREAS simulations by employing a comprehensive detector simulation, enabling direct analysis and validation of air shower parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a full detector simulation for LOPES, allowing direct comparison of data and CoREAS simulations using the same analysis framework.

Findings

Good agreement between LOPES data and CoREAS simulations.

Validation of the simulation approach for air shower parameter reconstruction.

First results demonstrating the effectiveness of the full detector simulation.

Abstract

The LOPES experiment at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, has been measuring radio emission of air showers for almost 10 years. For a better understanding of the emission process a detailed comparison of data with simulations is necessary. This is possible using a newly developed detector simulation including all LOPES detector components. After propagating a simulated event through this full detector simulation a standard LOPES like event file is written. LOPES data and CoREAS simulations can then be treated equally and the same analysis software can be applied to both. This gives the opportunity to compare data and simulations directly. Furthermore, the standard analysis software can be used with simulations which provide the possibility to check the accuracy regarding reconstruction of air shower parameters. We point out the advantages and present first results using such a full LOPES detector simulation. A comparison of LOPES data and the Monte Carlo code CoREAS based on an analysis using this detector simulation is shown.