Title: The Tunka-Rex Experiment for the Detection of the Air-Shower Radio Emission Author: Y. Kazarina (1), P.A. Bezyazeekov (1), N.M. Budnev (1), O.A. Gress (1), A. Haungs (2), R.Hiller (2), T. Huege (2), M. Kleifges (3), E.N. Konstantinov (1), E.E. Korosteleva (4), D.Kostunin (2), O. Krömer (3), L.A. Kuzmichev (4), R.R. Mirgazov (1), L. Pankov (1), V.V.Prosin (4), G.I. Rubtsov (5), C. Rühle (3), V. Savinov (1), F.G. Schröder (2), R.Wischnewski (6), A. Zagorodnikov (1) (the Tunka-Rex Collaboration) ((1) Institute of Applied Physics ISU, Irkutsk, Russia, (2) Institut für Kernphysik, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, (3) Institut für Prozessdatenverarbeitung und Elektronik, KIT, Germany, (4) Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics MSU, Moscow, Russia, (5) Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, (6) DESY, Zeuthen, Germany)
The Tunka-Rex experiment (Tunka Radio Extension) has been deployed in 2012 at the Tunka Valley (Republic of Buryatia, Russia). Its purpose is to investigate methods for the energy spectrum and the mass composition of high-energy cosmic rays based on the radio emission of air showers. Tunka-Rex is an array of 25 radio antennas distributed over an area of 3 km^2. The most important feature of the Tunka-Rex is that the air-shower radio emission is measured in coincidence with the Tunka-133 installation, which detects the Cherenkov radiation generated by the same atmospheric showers. Joint measurements of the radio emission and the Cherenkov light provide a unique opportunity for cross calibration of both calorimetric detection methods. The main goal of Tunka-Rex is to determine the precision for the reconstruction of air-shower parameters using the radio detection technique. In this article we present the current status of Tunka-Rex and first results, including reconstruction methods for parameters of the primary cosmic rays.
Title: Tunka-Rex: energy reconstruction with a single antenna station (ARENA 2016) Author: R. Hiller, P. A. Bezyazeekov, N. M. Budnev Fedorov, O. A. Gress, A. Haungs, T. Huege, Y. Kazarina, M. Kleifges, E. E. Korosteleva, D. Kostunin, O. Krömer, V. Kungel, L. A. Kuzmichev, N. Lubsandorzhiev, R. R. Mirgazov, R. Monkhoev, E. A. Osipova, A. Pakhorukov, L. Pankov, V. V. Prosin, G. I. Rubtsov, F. G. Schröder, R. Wischnewski, A. Zagorodnikov
The Tunka-Radio extension (Tunka-Rex) is a radio detector for air showers in Siberia. From 2012 to 2014 on, Tunka-Rex operated exclusively together with its host experiment, the air-Cherenkov array Tunka-133, which provided trigger, data acquisition, and an independent air-shower reconstruction. It was shown that the air-shower energy can be reconstructed by Tunka-Rex with a precision of 15% for events with signal in at least 3 antennas, using the radio amplitude at a distance of 120m from the shower axis as an energy estimator. Using the reconstruction from the host experiment Tunka-133 for the air-shower geometry (shower core and direction), the energy estimator can in principle already be obtained with measurements from a single antenna, close to the reference distance. We present a method for event selection and energy reconstruction, requiring only one antenna, and achieving a precision of about 20%. This method enables energy reconstruction with Tunka-Rex for three times more events than the standard reconstruction. The effective detector area is tripled for high-energy events, vertical events are already observed at lower energies, and the energy threshold decreases to by about 40%.
Title: Tunka-Rex: the Cost-Effective Radio Extension of the Tunka Air-Shower Observatory Author: F.G. Schröder, P. Bezyazeekov, N.M. Budnev, O.A. Gress, A. Haungs, R. Hiller, T. Huege, Y. Kazarina, M. Kleifges, E.N. Konstantinov, E.E. Korosteleva, D. Kostunin, O. Krömer, L.A. Kuzmichev, R.R. Mirgazov, L. Pankov, V.V. Prosin, G.I. Rubtsov, V. Savinov, R. Wischnewski, A. Zagorodnikov, (Tunka-Rex Collaboration)
Tunka-Rex is the radio extension of the Tunka cosmic-ray observatory in Siberia close to Lake Baikal. Since October 2012 Tunka-Rex measures the radio signal of air-showers in coincidence with the non-imaging air-Cherenkov array Tunka-133. Furthermore, this year additional antennas will go into operation triggered by the new scintillator array Tunka-Grande measuring the secondary electrons and muons of air showers. Tunka-Rex is a demonstrator for how economic an antenna array can be without losing significant performance: we have decided for simple and robust SALLA antennas, and we share the existing DAQ running in slave mode with the PMT detectors and the scintillators, respectively. This means that Tunka-Rex is triggered externally, and does not need its own infrastructure and DAQ for hybrid measurements. By this, the performance and the added value of the supplementary radio measurements can be studied, in particular, the precision for the reconstructed energy and the shower maximum in the energy range of approximately 1017-1018eV. Here we show first results on the energy reconstruction indicating that radio measurements can compete with air-Cherenkov measurements in precision. Moreover, we discuss future plans for Tunka-Rex.
HiSCORE-EA is the first detector phase of this project. It will consist of an array of HiSCORE stations distributed over an area of up to 1 km². The components of HiSCORE-EA will be as close as possible to the final HiSCORE components. Read more
The Tunka experiment measures air showers, which are initiated by charged cosmic rays or high energy gamma rays. The Tunka experiment is situated in Siberia in the Tunka valley close to lake Baikal. It mainly consists of a 1 km² sized array of 133 photomultipliers, which detect the Cherenkov light of air showers during dark and clear nights. From these measurements it is possible to reconstruct the arrival direction, energy and type of the cosmic rays. Read more
Title: Tunka-Rex: a Radio Antenna Array for the Tunka Experiment (ARENA 2012) Authors: F.G. Schröder, D. Besson, N.M. Budnev, O.A. Gress, A. Haungs, R. Hiller, Y. Kazarina, M. Kleifges, A. Konstantinov, E.E. Korosteleva, D. Kostunin, O. Krömer, L.A. Kuzmichev, R.R. Mirgazov, A. Pankov, V.V. Prosin, G.I. Rubtsov, C. Rühle, V. Savinov, J. Stockham, M. Stockham, E. Svetnitsky, R. Wischnewski, A. Zagorodnikov
Tunka-Rex, the Tunka radio extension, is an array of 20 antennas at the Tunka experiment close to Lake Baikal in Siberia. It started operation on 08 October 2012. The antennas are connected directly to the data acquisition of the Tunka main detector, a 1 square-km large array of 133 non-imaging photomultipliers observing the Cherenkov light of air showers in dark and clear nights. This allows to cross-calibrate the radio signal with the air-Cherenkov signal of the same air showers - in particular with respect to the energy and the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum, Xmax. Consequently, we can test whether in rural regions with low radio background the practically achievable radio precision comes close to the precision of the established fluorescence and air-Cherenkov techniques. At a mid-term perspective, due to its higher duty-cycle, Tunka-Rex can enhance the effective observing time of Tunka by an order of magnitude, at least in the interesting energy range above 100 PeV. Moreover, Tunka-Rex is very cost-effective, e.g., by using economic Short Aperiodic Loaded Loop Antennas (SALLAs). Thus, the results of Tunka-Rex and the comparison to other sophisticated radio arrays will provide crucial input for future large-scale cosmic-ray observatories, for which measurement precision as well as costs per area have to be optimised. In this paper we shortly describe the Tunka-Rex setup and discuss the technical and scientific goals of Tunka-Rex.
Construction has begun in the Tunka Valley near Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, on the world's largest cosmic-ray observatory. The first prototypes for the $46 m Hundred Square-km Cosmic Origin Explorer (HiSCORE) are now being installed and when complete by the end of the decade the facility will consist of an array of up to 1000 detectors spread over 100 square kilometres. HiSCORE will aim to solve the 100-year-old mystery surrounding the origins of cosmic rays - particles that originate in outer space and are accelerated to energies higher than those achieved in even the largest man-made particle accelerators. Read more