Simulation and Optimisation for the Radar Echo Telescope for Cosmic Rays

The SLAC T-576 beam test experiment showed the feasibility of the radar detection technique to probe high-energy particle cascades in dense media. Corresponding particle-level simulations indicate that the radar method has very promising sensitivity to probe the > PeV cosmic neutrino flux. As suc...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2021)
Main Authors: Stanley, R.S., De Kockere, S., Allison, P., Beatty, J., Besson, D., Connolly, A., Dasgupta, P., Deaconu, C., de Vries, K., Frikken, D., Hast, C., Huesca Santiago, E., Kuo, C.Y., Latif, U.A., Lukic, V., Meures, T., Mulrey, K., Nam, J., Nozdrina, A., Oberla, E., Prohira, S., Ralston, John P., Sbrocco, C., Torres, J., Toscano, S., Van den Broeck, D., van Eijndhoven, N., Wissel, S.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Sissa Medialab 2022
Subjects:
Antarctic
Antarc*
Ice Sheet
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1808/34682
https://doi.org/10.22323/1.395.0416
Description
Summary:The SLAC T-576 beam test experiment showed the feasibility of the radar detection technique to probe high-energy particle cascades in dense media. Corresponding particle-level simulations indicate that the radar method has very promising sensitivity to probe the > PeV cosmic neutrino flux. As such, it is crucial to demonstrate the in-situ feasibility of the radar echo method, which is the main goal of the current RET-CR experiment. Although the final goal of the Radar Echo Telescope is to detect cosmic neutrinos, we seek a proof of principle using cosmic-ray air showers penetrating the (high-altitude) Antarctic ice sheet. When an UHECR particle cascade propagates into a high-elevation ice sheet, it produces a dense in-ice cascade of charged particles which can reflect incoming radio waves. Using a surface cosmic-ray detector, the energy and direction of the UHECR can be reconstructed, and as such this constitutes a nearly ideal in-situ test beam to provide the proof of principle for the radar echo technique. RET-CR will consist of a transmitter array, receiver antennas and a surface scintillator plate array. Here we present the simulation efforts for RET-CR performed to optimise the surface array layout and triggering system, which affords an estimate of the expected event rate.

Similar Items