The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND) is a planned large-scale observatory of ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic particles, with energies exceeding 10
8
GeV. Its goal is to solve the ...long-standing mystery of the origin of UHE cosmic rays. To do this, GRAND will detect an unprecedented number of UHE cosmic rays and search for the undiscovered UHE neutrinos and gamma rays associated to them with unmatched sensitivity. GRAND will use large arrays of antennas to detect the radio emission coming from extensive air showers initiated by UHE particles in the atmosphere. Its design is modular: 20 separate, independent sub-arrays, each of 10000 radio antennas deployed over 10000 km
2
. A staged construction plan will validate key detection techniques while achieving important science goals early. Here we present the science goals, detection strategy, preliminary design, performance goals, and construction plans for GRAND.
We present a macroscopic calculation of coherent electro-magnetic radiation from air showers initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays, based on currents obtained from three-dimensional Monte Carlo ...simulations of air showers in a realistic geo-magnetic field. We discuss the importance of a correct treatment of the index of refraction in air, given by the law of Gladstone and Dale, which affects the pulses enormously for certain configurations, compared to a simplified treatment using a constant index. We predict in particular a geomagnetic Cherenkov radiation, which provides strong signals at high frequencies (GHz), for certain geometries together with “normal radiation” from the shower maximum, leading to a double peak structure in the frequency spectrum. We also provide some information about the numerical procedures referred to as EVA 1.0.
In this article we try to answer the question whether the radar detection technique can be used for the detection of high-energy-neutrino induced particle cascades in ice. A high-energy neutrino ...interacting in ice will induce a particle cascade, also referred to as a particle shower, moving at approximately the speed of light. Passing through, the cascade will ionize the medium, leaving behind a plasma tube. The different properties of the plasma-tube, such as its lifetime, size and the charge-density will be used to obtain an estimate if it is possible to detect this tube by means of the radar detection technique. Next to the ionization electrons a second plasma due to mobile protons induced by the particle cascade is discussed. An energy threshold for the cascade inducing particle of 4PeV for the electron plasma, and 20PeV for the proton plasma is obtained. This allows the radar detection technique, if successful, to cover the energy-gap between several PeV and a few EeV in the currently operating neutrino detectors, where on the low side IceCube runs out of events, and on the high side the Askaryan radio detectors begin to have large effective volumes.
We discuss the radio emission from high-energy cosmic-ray induced air showers hitting Earth’s surface before the cascade has died out in the atmosphere. The induced emission gives rise to a radio ...signal which should be detectable in the currently operating Askaryan radio detectors built to search for the GZK neutrino flux in ice. The in-air emission, the in-ice emission, as well as a new component, the coherent transition radiation when the particle bunch crosses the air–ice boundary, are included in the calculations.
Radio detection of cosmic-ray-induced air showers has come to a flight the last decade. Along with the experimental efforts, several theoretical models were developed. The main radio-emission ...mechanisms are established to be the geomagnetic emission due to deflection of electrons and positrons in Earth’s magnetic field and the charge-excess emission due to a net electron excess in the air shower front. It was only recently shown that Cherenkov effects play an important role in the radio emission from air showers. In this article we show the importance of these effects to extract quantitatively the position of the shower maximum from the radio signal, which is a sensitive measure for the mass of the initial cosmic ray. We also show that the relative magnitude of the charge-excess and geomagnetic emission changes considerably at small observer distances where Cherenkov effects apply.
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