Measuring chemical composition and particle cross-section of ultra-high energy cosmic rays by a ground radio array

TL;DR

This paper introduces a radio-based technique to determine the chemical composition and particle cross-section of ultra-high energy cosmic rays by analyzing the radio footprint and spectral data of air showers.

Contribution

It proposes a novel method linking radio footprint geometry and spectral information to improve shower maximum reconstruction with minimal antennas.

Findings

Radio footprint geometry correlates with shower maximum depth

Spectral data enhances the accuracy of shower maximum measurement

Method reduces the number of antennas needed for precise analysis

Abstract

We present a technique to measure chemical composition and particle cross-section of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using radio data. We relate the geometry of the radio footprint on the ground to the depth of the extensive air shower maximum. We suggest to use the spectral information of the radio signal to improve the shower maximum reconstruction by minimum number of antennas on the ground.