Towards an improved mass composition analysis with LOFAR

Corstanje A, Buitink S, Bonardi A, Falcke H, Hare BM, Hörandel JR, Huege T, Krampah G, Mitra P, Nelles A, Pandya H, Rachen JP, Rossetto L, Scholten O, ter Veen S, Trinh TN, Winchen T (2021)

Publication Type: Conference contribution

Publication year: 2021

Journal

PoS - Proceedings of Science SISSA

Publisher: Sissa Medialab Srl

Book Volume: 358

Conference Proceedings Title: Proceedings of Science

Event location: Madison, WI, USA

Abstract

The LOFAR radio telescope measures air showers in the energy range 1017 to 1018eV. For each measured shower, the depth of shower maximum Xmax is reconstructed by simulating the radio signal for an ensemble of showers using Corsika and CoREAS. Fitting their radio 'footprints' on the ground to the measured radio data yields an Xmax estimate to a precision of about 20g/cm2. Compared to previous works, we have improved the method in several ways. Local atmospheric data and refractive index profiles are now included into the simulations. The energy estimate and the fitting procedure are now done using the radio signals only, thus limiting systematic uncertainties due to the particle detector array (LORA). Using selection criteria from a more elaborate characterisation of the radio and particle detection, we reduce a composition bias in the Xmax reconstruction. A possible residual bias has been bounded from above. Thus, the systematic uncertainties on hXmaxihave been lowered, reducing an important limiting factor for composition studies at any level of statistics.

Authors with CRIS profile

Anna Nelles

Involved external institutions

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) BE Belgium (BE) Radboud University Nijmegen NL Netherlands (NL) University of Groningen / Rijksuniversiteit Groningen NL Netherlands (NL) Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Corstanje, A., Buitink, S., Bonardi, A., Falcke, H., Hare, B.M., Hörandel, J.R.,... Winchen, T. (2021). Towards an improved mass composition analysis with LOFAR. In Proceedings of Science. Madison, WI, USA: Sissa Medialab Srl.

MLA:

Corstanje, A., et al. "Towards an improved mass composition analysis with LOFAR." Proceedings of the 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2019, Madison, WI, USA Sissa Medialab Srl, 2021.

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