The shape of the radio wavefront of extensive air showers as measured with LOFAR

Corstanje A, Schellart P, Nelles A, Buitink S, Enriquez JE, Falcke H, Frieswijk W, Hörandel JR, Krause M, Rachen JP, Scholten O, Ter Veen S, Thoudam S, Trinh TN, Van Den Akker M, Alexov A, Anderson J, Avruch IM, Bell ME, Bentum MJ, Bernardi G, Best P, Bonafede A, Breitling F, Broderick J, Brüggen M, Butcher HR, Ciardi B, De Gasperin F, De Geus E, De Vos M, Duscha S, Eislöffel J, Engels D, Fallows RA, Ferrari C, Garrett MA, Grießmeier J, Gunst AW, Hamaker JP, Hoeft M, Horneffer A, Iacobelli M, Juette E, Karastergiou A, Kohler J, Kondratiev VI, Kuniyoshi M, Kuper G, Maat P, Mann G, McFadden R, McKay-Bukowski D, Mevius M, Munk H, Norden MJ, Orru E, Paas H, Pandey-Pommier M, Pandey VN, Pizzo R, Polatidis AG, Reich W, Röttgering H, Scaife AM, Schwarz D, Smirnov O, Stewart A, Steinmetz M, Swinbank J, Tagger M, Tang Y, Tasse C, Toribio C, Vermeulen R, Vocks C, Van Weeren RJ, Wijnholds SJ, Wucknitz O, Yatawatta S, Zarka P (2015)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2015

Journal

Book Volume: 61

Pages Range: 22-31

DOI: 10.1016/j.astropartphys.2014.06.001

Abstract

Extensive air showers, induced by high energy cosmic rays impinging on the Earth's atmosphere, produce radio emission that is measured with the LOFAR radio telescope. As the emission comes from a finite distance of a few kilometers, the incident wavefront is non-planar. A spherical, conical or hyperbolic shape of the wavefront has been proposed, but measurements of individual air showers have been inconclusive so far. For a selected high-quality sample of 161 measured extensive air showers, we have reconstructed the wavefront by measuring pulse arrival times to sub-nanosecond precision in 200 to 350 individual antennas. For each measured air shower, we have fitted a conical, spherical, and hyperboloid shape to the arrival times. The fit quality and a likelihood analysis show that a hyperboloid is the best parameterization. Using a non-planar wavefront shape gives an improved angular resolution, when reconstructing the shower arrival direction. Furthermore, a dependence of the wavefront shape on the shower geometry can be seen. This suggests that it will be possible to use a wavefront shape analysis to get an additional handle on the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum, which is sensitive to the mass of the primary particle. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

University of Groningen / Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Netherlands (NL) Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands (NL) Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) United States (USA) (US) University of Sydney (USYD) Australia (AU) Astron Netherlands (NL) Universität Hamburg (UHH) Germany (DE) Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam / Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam Germany (DE) University of Southampton United Kingdom (GB) Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie / Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy Germany (DE) Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) Germany (DE) Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory Finland (FI) Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL) France (FR) Leiden University Netherlands (NL) University of Oxford United Kingdom (GB) University of Orléans / Université d'Orléans France (FR) Netherlands Institute for Space Research / Stichting Ruimteonderzoek Nederland (SRON) Netherlands (NL) Smithsonian Institution United States (USA) (US) Australian National University (ANU) Australia (AU) Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik / Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics Germany (DE) Universität Bielefeld Germany (DE) Rhodes University South Africa (ZA) University of Amsterdam Netherlands (NL) Paris Observatory / Observatoire de Paris France (FR) University of Edinburgh United Kingdom (GB) Lagrange Laboratory France (FR)

How to cite

APA:

Corstanje, A., Schellart, P., Nelles, A., Buitink, S., Enriquez, J.E., Falcke, H.,... Zarka, P. (2015). The shape of the radio wavefront of extensive air showers as measured with LOFAR. Astroparticle Physics, 61, 22-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2014.06.001

MLA:

Corstanje, A., et al. "The shape of the radio wavefront of extensive air showers as measured with LOFAR." Astroparticle Physics 61 (2015): 22-31.

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