Justin Bray (University of Manchester)

Justin Bray Colloquium: Toward detecting cosmic rays at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory

Marsfield lecture theatre

Abstract

Recent work with LOFAR has shown that aperture-array radio telescopes are highly effective at measuring the radio footprint from a cosmic ray interacting in the atmosphere, allowing precise reconstruction of its energy and mass. The MWA, and eventually SKA-LOW, have the potential to improve on these results, improving our understanding of cosmic rays in the critical energy range believed to correspond to a transition from Galactic to extragalactic origin. Such an experiment depends on simultaneous high-time-resolution observations with the radio telescope and with an intermingled array of particle detectors, to detect the cosmic-ray interaction in real time and trigger the storage of radio data. I will describe the development of a particle-detector unit intended for deployment with the MWA and SKA-LOW, along with some of the scientific motivation for this experiment.