We present an improved method for the precise reconstruction of cosmic-ray air showers above 1017 eV with sparse radio arrays. The method is based on the comparison of measured pulses to predictions ...for radio pulse shapes by CoREAS simulations. We applied our method to the data of Tunka-Rex, a 1 km2 radio array in Siberia operating in the frequency band of 30–80 MHz. Tunka-Rex is triggered by the air-Cherenkov detector Tunka-133 and by scintillators (Tunka-Grande). The instrument collects air-shower data since 2012. The present paper describes an updated data analysis of Tunka-Rex and details of the new method applied. After quality cuts, when Tunka-Rex reaches its full efficiency, the energy resolution of about 10% given by the new method has reached the limit of systematic uncertainties due to the calibration uncertainty and shower-to-shower fluctuations. At the same time the shower maximum reconstruction has improved compared to the previous method based on the slope of the lateral distribution and reaches a precision of better than 35 g/cm2. We also define conditions of the measurements at which the shower maximum resolution of Tunka-Rex reaches a value of 25 g/cm2 and becomes competitive to optical detectors. To check and validate our reconstruction and efficiency cuts we compare individual events to the reconstruction of Tunka-133. Furthermore, we compare the mean of the shower maximum as a function of primary energy to the measurements of other experiments.
The radio technique is a promising method for detection of cosmic-ray air showers of energies around 100PeV and higher with an array of radio antennas. Since the amplitude of the radio signal can be ...measured absolutely and increases with the shower energy, radio measurements can be used to determine the air-shower energy on an absolute scale. We show that calibrated measurements of radio detectors operated in coincidence with host experiments measuring air showers based on other techniques can be used for comparing the energy scales of these host experiments. Using two approaches, first via direct amplitude measurements, and second via comparison of measurements with air shower simulations, we compare the energy scales of the air-shower experiments Tunka-133 and KASCADE-Grande, using their radio extensions, Tunka-Rex and LOPES, respectively. Due to the consistent amplitude calibration for Tunka-Rex and LOPES achieved by using the same reference source, this comparison reaches an accuracy of approximately 10% – limited by some shortcomings of LOPES, which was a prototype experiment for the digital radio technique for air showers. In particular we show that the energy scales of cosmic-ray measurements by the independently calibrated experiments KASCADE-Grande and Tunka-133 are consistent with each other on this level.
We present physical motivations and advantages of the new gamma-observatory TAIGA (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and gamma-ray astronomy). TAIGA will be located in the Tunka ...valley, 50km to the west of Lake Baikal, at the same place as the integrating air Cherenkov detector for cosmic rays Tunka-133. The TAIGA array is a complex, hybrid detector for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy for energies from a few TeV to several PeV as well as for cosmic ray studies from 100TeV to several EeV. The array will consist of a wide angle Cherenkov array – TAIGA-HiSCORE with 5km2 area, a net of 16 IACT telescopes (with FOV of about 9.72°×9.72°) as well as muon and other detectors. We present the current status of the array construction.
We describe novel wavelength shifters (WLS) to improve sensitivity of photodetectors to Cherenkov light. Due to inconsistency of Cherenkov radiation spectrum and photodetectors spectral ...sensitivities, a large share of Cherenkov photons are left undetected. Different types of WLS have been used for more than 40 years to solve this problem. In this paper we present novel WLS developed for astroparticle physics Cherenkov experiments. The main parameters (emission and absorption spectra, decay time etc.) of the shifters are shown. We also present results of in-situ tests of the developed shifters in the experiment.
The Tunka Radio Extension (Tunka-Rex) is a digital antenna array, which measures radio emission of the cosmic-ray air-showers in the frequency band of 30-80 MHz. Tunka-Rex is co-located with the ...TAIGA experiment in Siberia and consists of 63 antennas, 57 of them are in a densely instrumented area of about 1 km
2
. In the present workwe discuss the improvements of the signal reconstruction applied for Tunka-Rex. At the first stage we implemented matched filtering using averaged signals as template. The simulation study has shown that matched filtering allows one to decrease the threshold of signal detection and increase its purity. However, the maximum performanceof matched filtering is achievable only in case of white noise, while in reality the noise is not fully random due to different reasons. To recognize hidden features of the noise and treat them, we decided to use convolutional neural network with autoencoder architecture. Taking the recorded trace as an input, the autoencoder returns denoised traces, i.e. removes all signal-unrelated amplitudes. We present the comparison between the standard method of signal reconstruction, matched filtering and the autoencoder, and discuss the prospects of application of neural networks for lowering the threshold of digital antenna arrays for cosmic-ray detection.
The Tunka Radio Extension (Tunka-Rex) is an antenna array spread over an area of about 1 km2. The array is placed at the Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic rays and Gamma Astronomy (TAIGA) and ...detects the radio emission of air showers in the band of 30 to 80 MHz. During the last years it was shown that a sparse array such as Tunka-Rex is capable of reconstructing the parameters of the primary particle as accurate as the modern instruments. Based on these results we continue developing our data analysis. Our next goal is the reconstruction of cosmic-ray energy spectrum observed only by a radio instrument. Taking a step towards it, we develop a model of aperture of our instrument and test it against hybrid TAIGA observations and Monte-Carlo simulations. In the present work we give an overview of the current status and results for the last five years of operation of Tunka-Rex and discuss prospects of the cosmic-ray energy estimation with sparse radio arrays.
The Tunka Radio Extension (Tunka-Rex) is a digital antenna array for the detection of radio emission from cosmic-ray air showers in the frequency band of 30 to 80 MHz and for primary energies above ...100 PeV. The standard analysis of Tunka-Rex includes events with zenith angle of up to 50?. This cut is determined by the efficiency of the external trigger. However, due to the air-shower footprint increasing with zenith angle and due to the more efficient generation of radio emission (the magnetic field in the Tunka valley is almost vertical), there are a number of ultra-high-energy inclined events detected by Tunka-Rex. In this work we present a first analysis of a subset of inclined events detected by Tunka-Rex. We estimate the energies of the selected events and test the efficiency of Tunka-Rex antennas for detection of inclined air showers.
The Tunka Radio Extension (Tunka-Rex) is a digital radio array operating in the frequency band of 30-80 MHz and detecting radio emission from air-showers produced by cosmic rays with energies above ...100 PeV. The experimentis installed at the site of the TAIGA (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic rays and Gamma Astronomy) observatory and performs joint measurements with the co-located particle and air-Cherenkov detectors in passive mode receiving a trigger from the latter. Tunka-Rex collects data since 2012, and during the last five years went throughseveral upgrades. As a result the density of the antenna field was increased by three times since its commission. In this contribution we present the latest results of Tunka-Rex experiment, particularly an updated analysis and efficiency study, which have been applied to the measurement of the mean shower maximum as a function of energy for cosmic rays of energies up to EeV. The future plans are also discussed: investigations towards an energy spectrum of cosmic rays with Tunka-Rex and their mass composition using a combination of Tunka-Rex data with muon measurements by the particle detector Tunka-Grande.
The Tunka-Radio extension (Tunka-Rex) is a radio detector for air showers in Siberia. From 2012 to 2014, Tunka-Rex operated exclusively together with its host experiment, the air-Cherenkov array ...Tunka-133, which provided trigger, data acquisition, and an independent air-shower reconstruction. It was shown that the air-shower energy can be reconstructed by Tunka-Rex with a precision of 15% for events with signal in at least 3 antennas, using the radio amplitude at a distance of 120 m from the shower axis as an energy estimator. Using the reconstruction from the host experiment Tunka-133 for the air-shower geometry (shower core and direction), the energy estimator can in principle already be obtained with measurements from a single antenna, close to the reference distance. We present a method for event selection and energy reconstruction, requiring only one antenna, and achieving a precision of about 20%. This method increases the effective detector area and lowers thresholds for zenith angle and energy, resulting in three times more events than in the standard reconstruction.
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