Jun 8 – 11, 2026
Schlosshotel Karlsruhe
Europe/Berlin timezone

Radio interferometric air shower reconstruction at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Jun 11, 2026, 9:00 AM
15m
Schlosshotel Karlsruhe

Schlosshotel Karlsruhe

Bahnhofplatz 2, 76137 Karlsruhe, Germany

Speaker

Pim van Dillen (Radboud University)

Description

The Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargüe, Argentina, is the largest cosmic-ray observatory in the world. Recently, the Observatory got a major upgrade, called AugerPrime, which includes the addition of radio antennas to each surface detector station to measure the electromagnetic radiation emitted by air showers. This extension opens up the possibility to perform a 3D-mapping of the air shower with the use of radio interferometry. By exploiting the precise timing of the radio pulses, this technique enables the reconstruction of the arrival direction, the core and the depth of shower maximum with high precision. The method requires accurate clock synchronisation between stations and precise knowledge of their positions. The radio interferometric technique has been tested and applied to a large dataset of air showers measured by the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA), showing its feasibility. The next step is to expand to the full array, which requires a new setup of beacons and a differential GPS campaign. In this presentation, we will explain the radio interferometry technique, present the first results from AERA and discuss the progress towards applying it to the entire array.

Author

Pim van Dillen (Radboud University)

Presentation materials

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