Probing Fundamental Physics With Multi-Modal Cosmic Ray Events

TL;DR

The Horizon-T experiment measures the timing and structure of extensive air showers using multi-modal detectors to explore fundamental physics, revealing complex event characteristics and guiding future detector and analysis improvements.

Contribution

This work introduces a multi-modal detection system with nanosecond timing resolution for studying extensive air showers and their complex multi-modal events.

Findings

Detection of numerous multi-modal events since 2017

Challenges identified in data analysis and detector development

Insights into the spatial and temporal structure of EAS

Abstract

The Horizon-T experiment in Tien Shan is based on the idea of measuring the time at which EAS disc passes the observation level with nanosecond accuracy. The detector system consists of ten charged particles registration points located at distances of up to several hundred meters from each other. The points are equipped with detectors based on registration of Cherenkov radiation in glass and registration of scintillation light in polystyrene. The detectors register the arrival times of charged particles at the observation level with a resolution of ~2 ns, as required to study the spatial and temporal characteristics of the EAS and the structure of the multi-modal events specifically. Over the period of the Horizon-T data taking since 2017 to present, a large number of multi-modal events were detected. The data has presented numerous challenges that show the direction towards the further development of the detector system and of the analysis methods and techniques that could be applied to these multi-modal events.