Imaging the radio-wave emission from extensive air showers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel radio imaging technique for observing cosmic-ray air showers, demonstrating through simulations that it can resolve emission features inaccessible to single antennas, with potential applications in gamma-ray astronomy.

Contribution

The authors propose and simulate a new radio imaging method for air showers, showing its advantages over single-antenna detection and its relevance for ultra-high-energy gamma-ray studies.

Findings

Imaging with multiple antennas reveals emission details not accessible to single antennas.

Simulations show similarities between radio imaging and atmospheric Cherenkov techniques.

GHz frequency domain imaging could benefit gamma-ray astronomy and air shower studies.

Abstract

We propose a new way to observe cosmic-ray-induced air showers by imaging the radio emission. With simulations we demonstrate key features for imaging the radio-wave emission from air showers, which show similarities to the well-established atmospheric imaging Cherenkov technique in gamma-ray astronomy. In addition, we find that imaging the emission with a camera, consisting of multiple antennas, resolves emission that is not accessible to a single antenna. Pursuing this technique, with a camera operating in the GHz frequency domain, might be beneficial ultra-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy and other studies that include detailed observations of air showers.