GRANDProto300: a pathfinder with richastroparticle and radio-astronomy science case

TL;DR

GRANDProto300 is a pioneering radio array in Tibet aimed at detecting neutrinos, cosmic rays, and radio transients, serving as a test bed for future GRAND stages and exploring diverse astrophysical phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces the first stage of GRAND, demonstrating detection concepts and developing techniques for radio detection of inclined air-showers, with a broad scientific research agenda.

Findings

Validation of radio detection techniques for inclined air-showers

Potential for high-precision cosmic-ray and gamma-ray measurements

Survey capabilities for Epoch of Reionization and transient radio sources

Abstract

The GRANDProto300 (GP300) experiment is the first stage of the Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND) project. It will be deployed between 2020 and 2021 in a radio-quiet area, at $3000\,$m of altitude at the rim of the Tibetan plateau, over a total surface of $200\,$km$^2$. The primary goal of GP300 is to demonstrate the viability of the GRAND detection concepts. It will provide a unique test bench to develop and validate new identification and reconstruction techniques for the radio detection of very inclined air-showers, in the perspective of the next stages of GRAND. GP300 also proposes a rich science case, which includes accurate measurements of cosmic-ray and gamma-ray air-showers in the energy range of 30 PeV to 1 EeV, and a wide-field survey of the Epoch of Reionization, and of radio transients such as Giant Radio Pulses and Fast Radio Bursts.