A Proportional Wire Chamber Array: GRAND's Status

TL;DR

Project GRAND is a large air shower array utilizing proportional wire chambers to detect secondary particles from cosmic rays, enabling detailed studies of high-energy cosmic phenomena and muon detection.

Contribution

This paper reports on the status and capabilities of the GRAND array, highlighting its design, trigger systems, and potential for cosmic ray research.

Findings

Array covers 10,000 m^2 for extensive air shower detection

Two triggers differentiate between air showers and muon tracks

Array can detect primary energies >100 TeV and >10 GeV

Abstract

Project GRAND is a 100m x 100m air shower array of position sensitive proportional wire chambers (PWCs) located at 41.7 degrees North and 86.2 degrees West at an elevation of 220m above sea level. Its convenient location adjacent to the campus of the University of Notre Dame makes it a good training ground for students. There are 64 stations each with eight 1.29 m^2 PWCs. The geometry of the stations allows for the angles of charged secondaries to be determined to within 0.26 degrees in each of two orthogonal planes; muons are differentiated from electrons and hadrons by means of a steel plate. Two triggers are run simultaneously: a multiple hit coincidence trigger, rich in extensive air showers, and a single track trigger, rich in secondary muon tracks. The former trigger is sensitive to primary energies greater than ~100 TeV, the latter to energies greater than ~10 GeV.