Measurements are reported on the fluorescence of air as a function of depth in electromagnetic showers initiated by bunches of 28.5 GeV electrons. The light yield is compared with the expected and observed depth profiles of ionization in the showers. It validates the use of atmospheric fluorescence profiles in measuring ultra high energy cosmic rays.
In a test experiment at the Final Focus Test Beam of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the fluorescence yield of 28.5 GeV electrons in air and nitrogen was measured. The measured photon yields between 300 and 400 nm at 1 atm and 29 deg C are Y(760 Torr, air) = 4.42 +/- 0.73 and Y(760 Torr, nitrogen) = 29.2 +/- 4.8 photons per electron per meter. Assuming that the fluorescence yield is proportional to the energy deposition of a charged particle traveling through air, good agreement with measurements at lower particle energies is observed.
Developed as NASA Astrophysics Probe-class mission, the Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is designed to identify the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and to observe cosmic neutrinos. POEMMA consists of two spacecraft flying in a loose formation at 525 km altitude, 28.5$^circ$ inclination orbits. Each spacecraft hosts a Schmidt telescope with a large collecting area and wide Field-of-View (FoV). A novel focal plane is employed that is optimized to observe both the UV fluorescence signal from extensive air showers (EASs) and the optical Cherenkov signals from EASs. In UHECR stereo fluorescence mode, POEMMA will measure the spectrum, composition, and full-sky distribution of the UHECRs above 20 EeV with high statistics along with remarkable sensitivity to UHE neutrinos. The POEMMA spacecraft are designed to quickly re-orient to a Target-of-Opportunity (ToO) neutrino mode to observe transient astrophysical sources with unique sensitivity. In this mode, POEMMA will be able to detect cosmic tau neutrino events above 20 PeV by measuring the upward-moving EASs for $tau$-lepton decays induced from tau neutrino interactions in the Earth. In this paper, POEMMAs science goals and instrument design are summarized with a focus on the SiPM implementation in POEMMA, along with a detailed discussion of the properties of the Cherenkov EAS signal in the context of wide wavelength sensitivity offered by SiPMs. A comparison of the fluorescence response between SiPMs and the MAPMTs currently planned for use in POEMMA will also be discussed, assessing the potential for SiPMs to perform EAS fluorescence measurements.
The determination of the shower development in air using fluorescence yield is subject to corrections due to the angular spread of the particles in the shower. This could introduce systematic errors in the energy determination of an extensive air shower through the fluorescence technique.
Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) detect the Cherenkov light flashes of Extended Air Showers (EAS) triggered by very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays impinging on the Earths atmosphere. Due to the overwhelming background from hadron induced EAS, the discrimination of the rare gamma-like events is rather difficult, in particular at energies below 100 GeV. The influence of the Geomagnetic Field (GF) on the EAS development can further complicate this discrimination and, in addition, also systematically affect the gamma efficiency and energy resolution of an IACT. Here we present the results from dedicated Monte Carlo (MC) simulations for the MAGIC telescope site. Additionally we show that measurements of sub-TeV gamma-rays from the Crab nebula are affected even for a low GF strength of less than 33 micro Tesla.
Aiming at the observation of cosmic-ray chemical composition at the knee energy region, we have been developinga new type air-shower core detector (YAC, Yangbajing Air shower Core detector array) to be set up at Yangbajing (90.522$^circ$ E, 30.102$^circ$ N, 4300 m above sea level, atmospheric depth: 606 g/m$^2$) in Tibet, China. YAC works together with the Tibet air-shower array (Tibet-III) and an underground water cherenkov muon detector array (MD) as a hybrid experiment. Each YAC detector unit consists of lead plates of 3.5 cm thick and a scintillation counter which detects the burst size induced by high energy particles in the air-shower cores. The burst size can be measured from 1 MIP (Minimum Ionization Particle) to $10^{6}$ MIPs. The first phase of this experiment, named YAC-I, consists of 16 YAC detectors each having the size 40 cm $times$ 50 cm and distributing in a grid with an effective area of 10 m$^{2}$. YAC-I is used to check hadronic interaction models. The second phase of the experiment, called YAC-II, consists of 124 YAC detectors with coverage about 500 m$^2$. The inner 100 detectors of 80 cm $times $ 50 cm each are deployed in a 10 $times$ 10 matrix from with a 1.9 m separation and the outer 24 detectors of 100 cm $times$ 50 cm each are distributed around them to reject non-core events whose shower cores are far from the YAC-II array. YAC-II is used to study the primary cosmic-ray composition, in particular, to obtain the energy spectra of proton, helium and iron nuclei between 5$times$$10^{13}$ eV and $10^{16}$ eV covering the knee and also being connected with direct observations at energies around 100 TeV. We present the design and performance of YAC-II in this paper.
J.Belz
,Z.Cao
,P.Huentemeyer
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(2005)
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"Comparison of air fluorescence and ionization measurements of E.M. shower depth profiles: test of a UHECR detector technique"
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Clive Field
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