Radio detection of Extensive Air Showers (ECRS 2016)

Detection of the mostly geomagnetically generated radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers provides an alternative to air-Cherenkov and air-fluorescence detection, since it is not limited to clear nights. Like these established methods, the radio signal is sensitive to the calorimetric energy and the position of the maximum of the electromagnetic shower component. This makes antenna arrays an ideal extension for particle-detector arrays above a threshold energy of about 100 PeV of the primary cosmic-ray particles. In the last few years the digital radio technique for cosmic-ray air showers again made significant progress, and there now is a consistent picture of the emission mechanisms confirmed by several measurements. Recent results by the antenna arrays AERA and Tunka-Rex confirm that the absolute accuracy for the shower energy is as good as the other detection techniques. Moreover, the sensitivity to the shower maximum of the radio signal has been confirmed in direct comparison to air-Cherenkov measurements by Tunka-Rex. The dense antenna array LOFAR can already compete with the established techniques in accuracy for cosmic-ray mass-composition. In the future, a new generation of radio experiments might drive the field: either by providing extremely large exposure for inclined cosmic-ray or neutrino showers or, like the SKA core in Australia with its several 10,000 antennas, by providing extremely detailed measurements.
Comment: XXV ECRS 2016 Proceedings - eConf C16-09-04.3