The LOPES Experiment Katrin Linka∗, W.D
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Nuclear Physics B (Proc. Suppl.) 212–213 (2011) 323–328 www.elsevier.com/locate/npbps The LOPES experiment Katrin Linka∗, W.D. Apelb, J.C. Arteagaa †, T. Aschc,L.B¨ahrend, K. Bekkb, M. Bertainae, P.L. Biermannf ,J.Bl¨umer, H. Bozdogb, I.M. Brancusg, P. Buchholzh, S. Buitinkd, E. Cantoniei, A. Chiavassae, K. Daumillerb, V. de Souzaa‡, P. Dollb, R. Engelb, H. Falckedj, M. Fingerb, D. Fuhrmannk, H. Gemmekec, C. Grupenh, A. Haungsb, D. Heckb, J.R. H¨orandeld, A. Hornefferd, D. Hubera, T. Huegeb, P.G. Isarb §, K.-H. Kampertk, D. Kanga,O.Kr¨omerc, J. Kuijpersd, S. Lafebred, P.Luczak l, M. Ludwiga, H.J. Mathesb, M. Melissasa, C. Morelloi, S. Nehlsb, J. Oehlschl¨agerb, N. Palmieria, T. Pierogb, J. Rautenbergk, H. Rebelb, M. Rothb,C.R¨uhlec, A. Saftoiug, H. Schielerb, A. Schmidtc, F.G. Schr¨oderb, O. Simam,G.Tomag, G.C. Trincheroi, A. Weindlb, J. Wocheleb, M. Wommerb, J. Zabierowskil, J.A. Zensusf aKarlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institut f¨urExperimentelle Kernphysik, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany bKarlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) - Campus North, Institut f¨urKernphysik, Germany cKarlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) - Campus North, Institut f¨urProzessdatenverarbeitung und Elektronik, Germany dRadboud University Nijmegen, Department of Astrophysics, The Netherlands eDipartimento di Fisica Generale dell’ Universita Torino, Italy f Max-Planck-Institut f¨urRadioastronomie Bonn, Germany gNational Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania hUniversit¨atSiegen, Fachbereich Physik, Germany iINAF Torino, Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, Italy jASTRON, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands kUniversit¨atWuppertal, Fachbereich Physik, Germany lSoltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Lodz, Poland mUniversity of Bucharest, Department of Physics, Bucharest, Romania Cosmic ray particles hit the Earth’s atmosphere and induce extensive air showers (EAS). These EAS mainly consist of electrons and positrons that produce radio emission due to their interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field. Measuring this radio emission is the purpose of the LOPES (LOFAR Prototype Station) experiment. LOPES is located at Campus North of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology at the same site as the EAS particle detector KASCADE-Grande. Since the first measurements in 2003, LOPES was improved by various experimental setups and could establish the radio technique. By now, detailed studies of the measured radio signal are performed, like the behaviour of the lateral distribution or the polarization of the electric field. Furthermore, with LOPES the dependence of the radio pulse on properties of the incoming cosmic ray, like primary energy, primary mass, or incoming direction is investigated. In this article we describe the different LOPES setups, next we explain our standard analysis procedure and then we discuss some highlights of our recent results. 1. Introduction But due to the lack of digital electronics and the huge progress of particle detector techniques The first discovery of radio emission from cos- the radio measurements played a minor role for mic ray air showers was already in the 1960s [1]. some decades. Over the last years the capabil- ∗ ity of the radio detection of cosmic ray air show- corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected] † now at: Universidad Michoacana, Instituto de F´ısica y ers had been rediscovered and the LOPES exper- Matem´aticas,Mexico ‡ iment [2] is playing a pioneering role. LOPES is now at: Universidade S˜ao Paulo, Instituto de F´ısicade S˜ao Carlos, Brasil located at the Campus North of the Karlsruhe In- § now at: Institute of Space Science, Bucharest, Romania stitute of Technology, at the same site as the air 0920-5632/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2011.03.043 324 K. Link et al. / Nuclear Physics B (Proc. Suppl.) 212–213 (2011) 323–328 shower detector KASCADE-Grande [3,4]. This nal. The number of antennas increased to 30 east- is the main advantage of LOPES over other ra- west aligned antennas and therefore also the base- dio experiments like CODALEMA [5], because line increased. This led to higher sensitivity and KASCADE-Grande provides a trigger and high- a better angular resolution. During the LOPES quality per event air shower information. 30 period the first absolute amplitude calibration LOPES is an array of radio antennas used as took place and we started with a monitoring of a digital interferometer. The experiment was re- the atmospheric electric field. For the LOPES 30 built several times to study different aspects of pol setup half of the antennas have been rotated the radio emission of cosmic ray air showers and to measure the north-south polarization. At five to test the capability of the radio technique to antenna positions both polarizations were mea- measure air shower properties like primary mass, sured, see Fig.2. Measuring the different polar- primary energy or the arrival direction. izations can give further information about the emission mechanism. 2. Experimental set-up The LOPES 3D setup consists of ten antenna stations, each consisting of three dipoles. These The experimental setup of LOPES changed so called tripols are able to measure the com- several times to address different scientific ques- plete 3-dimensional E-field vector. The LOPES tions. Fig.1 shows an overview of the differ- 3D setup was built in February 2010 and by now ent phases. LOPES is based on the design of all calibration steps have been successfully per- LOFAR [6], a digital radio observatory for as- formed and we can start with the first analysis of tronomy. The deployed antennas are inverted the new data. v-shaped dipole antennas and only in the latest LOPESSTAR is an extension to LOPES run- setup, LOPES 3D, a different antenna type has ning in parallel to the other setups. The main been used. In Fig.2 the antenna positions are challenge for this setup is the research and devel- shown, exemplarily for LOPES 30 pol. For all se- opment for large scale radio experiments, like the tups LOPES is measuring in the frequency range Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) [7,8]. from 40 to 80 MHz with a sampling rate of 80 Different antenna types like the LPDA and the MHz, that is in the second Nyquist zone. LOPES SALLA [9] and a sophisticated digital self-trigger receives a trigger from KASCADE-Grande for air [10] have been developed with this setup. It con- showers with an energy above ≈ 1016 eV and the sists of ten dual-polarized antennas of different data is read out digitally. Now we describe the types and they are distributed over the whole unique characteristics and scientific goals of each KASCADE-Grande array, see also Fig.2. setup. LOPES 10 consisted of ten dipole antennas. In 3. Analysis procedure this first setup all antennas were east-west aligned because one expects a signal mainly polarized A big challenge for the LOPES experiment along the east-west direction for a geomagnetic is the high noise level at KIT Campus North. origin of the radioemission. The first idea of the Therefore it is necessary to have a sophisticated LOPES experiment was to show that it is possi- analysis procedure. The different steps that are ble to measure the radio emission of cosmic ray applied to the data in our standard reconstruc- air showers with a digital radio array like LOFAR tion are presented in this chapter. using digital interferomtery. Besides the delivery To transform the measured ADC counts to the of this ”proof of principle” it was possible to show electric field, an absolute amplitude calibration a correlation of the radio signal with primary en- is applied to the data. Therefore, several mea- ergy and first characteristics of the radio signal surement campaigns with a calibrated reference could be investigated [2]. source took place over the years. As shown in The next setup, LOPES 30, was dedicated to Fig.3 for one antenna the gain stays stable and measuring the lateral distribution of the radio sig- the remaining systematic uncertainties caused by K. Link et al. / Nuclear Physics B (Proc. Suppl.) 212–213 (2011) 323–328 325 April 2003 February 2005 December 2006 February 2010 LOPES 10 LOPES 30 LOPES 30 pol LOPES 3D STAR start of LOPES shutdown of TV station first amplitude calibration start of E-field measurements start of beacon measurement Figure 1. Time-line showing the different phases of the LOPES experiment. 5 KASCADE-Array 10 LOPES 104 y coordinate [m] y coordinate 3 Beacon 10 Amplification factor V different campaigns mean LOPESSTAR 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 Frequency in MHz Grande stations Figure 3. Measured gain over frequency for one an- tenna. The different campaigns took place during dif- ferent weather conditions. x coordinate [m] Figure 2. Layout of the LOPES 30 pol setup. Trian- gles represent either east-west or north-south aligned timing accuracy is around 1 ns [12]. antennas, stars represent positions with east-west and As already mentioned, LOPES is measuring in north-south antennas. the second Nyquist domain. This means that the data can be upsampled, i.e. correctly interpo- environmental conditions like weather are around lated, to a higher sampling rate. 13% in the power of the electric field [11]. Al- Then the beam-forming is performed. The though the chosen frequency band does not in- traces of the antennas are rearranged according clude the main broadcasting stations there is still to the arrival direction of the air shower and the narrow-band radio frequency interference that is curvature of the radio front. In the next step digitally filtered out. the calculation of the cross-correlation beam (CC- The next step is the delay and dispersion cor- beam) is done from block averaged data.