Air shower development through the time dependence of its induced electric field

TL;DR

This paper shows how the time-dependent electric field caused by cosmic ray air showers can reveal details about the shower's development and the primary particle's mass.

Contribution

It introduces a method to infer shower development parameters and primary mass from the electric field's time dependence at the surface.

Findings

Parameters of shower development can be extracted from electric field measurements.

The primary mass of cosmic rays can be inferred using this electric field analysis.

The method links observed electric fields to the shower's longitudinal profile.

Abstract

Ultra-high energy cosmic rays impinge on the atmosphere and induce air shower cascades, in which huge numbers of particles are produced. By travelling through the Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field, these particles create a noticeable effect on the electric field at the surface. In this article, we demonstrate that parameters of the shower longitudinal development and primary mass can be inferred from mapping the time dependence of the observed electric field to the emitted electric field as a function of slant depth along the shower axis.