Computing the electric field from Extensive Air Showers using a realistic description of the atmosphere

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of using realistic atmospheric models to accurately compute the electric field from extensive air showers, which is crucial for determining the properties of ultra-high energy cosmic rays.

Contribution

It introduces a method that incorporates realistic atmospheric descriptions to improve the accuracy of electric field calculations from air showers.

Findings

Realistic atmospheric models reduce systematic errors in electric field estimation.

Improved accuracy in determining the atmospheric depth of maximum development (x).

Enhanced understanding of cosmic ray composition through radio signal analysis.

Abstract

The composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is still poorly known and constitutes a very important topic in the field of high-energy astrophysics. Detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is carried out via the extensive air showers they create after interacting with the atmosphere constituents. The secondary electrons and positrons within the showers emit a detectable electric field in the kHz-GHz range. It is possible to use this radio signal for the estimation of the atmospheric depth of maximal development of the showers \xmax, with a good accuracy and a duty cycle close to $100\%$. This value of \xmax\ is strongly correlated to the nature of the primary cosmic ray that initiated the shower. We show in this paper the importance of using a realistic atmospheric model in order to correct for systematic errors that can prevent a correct and unbiased estimation of~\xmax.