Investigation of muon and radio signals from high energy extensive air showers

• Grant number: 15/22114-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: February 05, 2016
• End date: February 04, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Anderson Campos Fauth
• Grantee: Luiz Augusto Stuani Pereira
• Supervisor: Andreas Haungs
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin (IFGW). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/23074-0 - Muons in high energy cosmic ray air showers, BP.DR

Abstract

Charged particles with energies ranging from a few times 10e6 eV up to 10e20 eV are continuously impinging on the Earth's atmosphere. Their study constitutes an important field of research in both astronomy and particle physics, and some cosmic ray related effects even have significance for the public's every-day life. High energy muons can provide information about the processes occurring in the development of Extensive Air Shower (EAS). Since this component is coupled with the hadronic component, it immediately provides crucial information about the properties of the primary cosmic rays. Thus, muons can be used to study the chemical composition of primary particles because its multiplicity depends on the atomic number of the primary. Moreover, radio measurements of EAS open an entirely new window for the observation of cosmic rays. The technique has a number of significant benefits. Similar to the optical fluorescence technique, but detectable at day and night time, it is sensitive to the electromagnetic shower component only, and it allows a much more direct view into the air shower cascade than particle measurements on the ground, yielding information greatly simplifying the reconstruction of air shower parameters from particle measurements. The radio signal thus correlates well with the muon number measured by particle detector arrays, as almost all muons generated in the shower cascade reach ground-level. This research project aims a detailed experimental study of the muonic and electromagnetic component of the EAS (correlating radio and muon signals of the same air shower) with the purpose of improving the measurement of the chemical composition of the primary cosmic radiation through the data from the detection systems AERA and AMIGA of the Pierre Auger Observatory. (AU)