A large light-mass component of cosmic rays at 10^{17} - 10^{17.5} eV   from radio observations

S. Buitink (1,2); A. Corstanje (2); H. Falcke (2,3,4,5); J. R.; H\"orandel (2,4); T. Huege (6); A. Nelles (2,7); J. P. Rachen (2); L.; Rossetto (2); P .Schellart (2); O. Scholten (8,9); S. ter Veen (3); S.; Thoudam (2); T. N. G. Trinh (8); J. Anderson (10); A. Asgekar (3,11); I. M.; Avruch (12,13); M. E. Bell (14); M. J. Bentum (3,15); G. Bernardi (16,17); P.; Best (18); A. Bonafede (19); F. Breitling (20); J. W. Broderick (21); W. N.; Brouw (3,13); M. Br\"uggen (19); H. R. Butcher (22); D. Carbone (23); B.; Ciardi (24); J. E. Conway (25); F. de Gasperin (19); E. de Geus (3,26); A.; Deller (3); R.-J. Dettmar (27); G. van Diepen (3); S. Duscha (3); J.; Eisl\"offel (28); D. Engels (29); J. E. Enriquez (2); R. A. Fallows (3); R.; Fender (35); C. Ferrari (30); W. Frieswijk (3); M. A. Garrett (3,31); J. M.; Griessmeier (32,33); A. W. Gunst (3); M. P. van Haarlem (3); T. E. Hassall; (21); G. Heald (3,13); J. W. T. Hessels (3,23); M. Hoeft (28); A. Horneffer; (5); M. Iacobelli (3); H. Intema (31,34); E. Juette (27); A. Karastergiou; (35); V. I. Kondratiev (3,36); M. Kramer (5,44); M. Kuniyoshi (37); G. Kuper; (3); J. van Leeuwen (3,23); G. M. Loose (3); P. Maat (3); G. Mann (20); S.; Markoff (23); R. McFadden (3); D. McKay-Bukowski (38,39); J. P. McKean; (3,13); M. Mevius (3,13); D. D. Mulcahy (21); H. Munk (3); M. J. Norden (3),; E. Orru (3); H. Paas (40); M. Pandey-Pommier (41); V. N. Pandey (3); M.; Pietka (35); R. Pizzo (3); A. G. Polatidis (3); W. Reich (5); H. J. A.; R\"ottgering (31); A. M. M. Scaife (21); D. J. Schwarz (42); M. Serylak (35),; J. Sluman (3); O. Smirnov (43,17); B. W. Stappers (44); M. Steinmetz (20); A.; Stewart (35); J. Swinbank (23,45); M. Tagger (32); Y. Tang (3); C. Tasse; (43,46); M. C. Toribio (3,31); R. Vermeulen (3); C. Vocks (20); C. Vogt (3),; R. J. van Weeren (16); R. A. M. J. Wijers (23); S. J. Wijnholds (3); M. W.; Wise (3,23); O. Wucknitz (5); S. Yatawatta (3); P. Zarka (47); J. A. Zensus; (5) ((1) Astrophysical Institute; Vrije Universiteit Brussel; (2) Department; of Astrophysics/IMAPP; Radboud University Nijmegen; (3) ASTRON; Netherlands; Institute for Radio Astronomy; (4) Nikhef; Science Park Amsterdam; (5); Max-Planck-Institut f\"ur Radioastronomie; (6) IKP; Karlsruhe Institute of; Technology (KIT); (7) Department of Physics; Astronomy; University of; California Irvine; (8) KVI CART; University of Groningen; (9) Vrije; Universiteit Brussel; D (10) Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam,; DeutschesGeoForschungsZentrum GFZ; (11) Shell Technology Center; (12) SRON; Netherlands Insitute for Space Research; (13) Kapteyn Astronomical Institute,; (14) CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility; (15) University of Twente,; (16) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; (17) SKA South Africa; (18); Institute for Astronomy; University of Edinburgh; (19) University of Hamburg,; (20) Leibniz-Institut; (21) School of Physics; Astronomy; University of; Southampton; (22) Research School of Astronomy; Astrophysics; Australian; National University; (23) Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy; University; of Amsterdam; (24) Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics; (25) Onsala Space; Observatory; Dept. of Earth; Space Sciences; Chalmers University of; Technology; (26) SmarterVision BV; (27) Astronomisches Institut der; Ruhr-Universit\"at Bochum; (28) Th\"uringer Landessternwarte; (29) Hamburger; Sternwarte; (30) Laboratoire Lagrange; Universit\'e C\^ote d'Azur; (31); Leiden Observatory; Leiden University; (32) LPC2E - Universite; d'Orleans/CNRS; (33) Station de Radioastronomie de Nancay; Observatoire de; Paris - CNRS/INSU; (34) National Radio Astronomy Observatory; (35); Astrophysics; University of Oxford; (36) Astro Space Center of the Lebedev; Physical Institute; (37) National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; Japan; (38) Sodankyl\"a Geophysical Observatory; University of Oulu; (39) STFC; Rutherford Appleton Laboratory; Harwell Science; Innovation Campus; (40); Center for Information Technology (CIT); University of Groningen; (41) Centre; de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon; Observatoire de Lyon; (42) Fakult\"at; f\"ur Physik; Universit\"at Bielefeld; (43) Department of Physics and; Electronics; Rhodes University; (44) Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics,; School of Physics; Astronomy; The University of Manchester; (45); Department of Astrophysical Sciences; Princeton University; (46) GEPI,; Observatoire de Paris; CNRS; Universit\'e Paris Diderot; (47) LESIA)

arXiv:1603.01594·astro-ph.HE·May 3, 2016

A large light-mass component of cosmic rays at 10^{17} - 10^{17.5} eV from radio observations

S. Buitink (1,2), A. Corstanje (2), H. Falcke (2,3,4,5), J. R., H\"orandel (2,4), T. Huege (6), A. Nelles (2,7), J. P. Rachen (2), L., Rossetto (2), P .Schellart (2), O. Scholten (8,9), S. ter Veen (3), S., Thoudam (2), T. N. G. Trinh (8), J. Anderson (10), A. Asgekar (3,11)

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TL;DR

This study uses radio detection to measure the atmospheric depth of cosmic ray air showers between 10^{17} and 10^{17.5} eV, revealing a predominantly light-mass composition and suggesting a Galactic origin for these cosmic rays.

Contribution

First radio-based measurement of Xmax with high precision in the 10^{17} to 10^{17.5} eV range, providing new insights into cosmic ray composition.

Findings

01

Cosmic rays in this energy range are mainly light-mass particles (~80%).

02

Radio detection achieves high-precision Xmax measurements (~16 g/cm^2).

03

Results support a Galactic origin dominating below 10^{17.5} eV.

Abstract

Cosmic rays are the highest energy particles found in nature. Measurements of the mass composition of cosmic rays between 10^{17} eV and 10^{18} eV are essential to understand whether this energy range is dominated by Galactic or extragalactic sources. It has also been proposed that the astrophysical neutrino signal comes from accelerators capable of producing cosmic rays of these energies. Cosmic rays initiate cascades of secondary particles (air showers) in the atmosphere and their masses are inferred from measurements of the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum, Xmax, or the composition of shower particles reaching the ground. Current measurements suffer from either low precision, or a low duty cycle and a high energy threshold. Radio detection of cosmic rays is a rapidly developing technique, suitable for determination of Xmax with a duty cycle of in principle nearly 100%. The…

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