A New Technique for Large-Area Detection of High Energy Particles using Ultra-Fast Magnetic Sensing

TL;DR

This paper introduces a scalable magnetic sensing technique capable of detecting ultra-high energy particles over large areas, offering a cost-effective method for cosmic-ray and particle detection with ultra-fast temporal resolution.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel large-scale magnetic sensing approach that extends existing high-energy particle detection methods to much larger areas and faster pulse detection.

Findings

Potential to detect cosmic-ray showers above 100 PeV

Capability to search for highly charged hypothetical particles

Detection of magnetic pulses faster than existing detectors

Abstract

Cascades from high-energy particles produce a brief current and associated magnetic fields. Even sub-nanosecond duration magnetic fields can be detected with a relatively low bandwidth system by latching image currents on a capacitor. At accelerators, this technique is employed routinely by beam-current monitors, which work for pulses even as fast as femtoseconds. We discuss scaling up these instruments in size, to 100 meters and beyond, to serve as a new kind of ground- and space-based high-energy particle detector which can instrument large areas relatively inexpensively. This new technique may be used to detect and/or veto ultra-high energy cosmic-ray showers above 100 PeV. It may also be applied to searches for hypothetical highly charged particles. In addition, these detectors may serve to search for extremely short magnetic field pulses of any origin, faster than other detectors by orders of magnitude.