Descrizione del progetto
Misure radio di raggi cosmici ad altissima energia provenienti dalla nostra galassia
I raggi cosmici sono le particelle più energetiche del nostro universo. La loro energia supera nettamente la gamma degli acceleratori di particelle costruiti dall’uomo. Sappiamo poco della loro origine. Pertanto, abbiamo bisogno di grandi e accurati sistemi di rivelatori per misurare questi rari raggi cosmici quando appaiono nell’atmosfera. Il progetto PeV-Radio, finanziato dall’UE, sta sviluppando un sistema radio ad alta sensibilità da utilizzare al Polo Sud per questo scopo. Il sistema farà anche l’ambizioso sforzo di cercare i fotoni a più alta energia mai rilevati. Questi possono rivelare la fonte dei raggi cosmici galattici più energetici, come il buco nero supermassiccio al centro della nostra Via Lattea, che si trova costantemente nel campo visivo del nuovo sistema radio.
Obiettivo
The most energetic particles in our Galaxy are accelerated by yet unknown sources to energies much beyond the reach of human-made accelerators such as LHC at CERN. The detection of PeV photons from such a natural Galactic accelerator will be a fundamental breakthrough. For this purpose I propose a digital radio array for air showers at South Pole building on my proven expertise in successfully setting up and managing an antenna array in Siberia. Recently, we have discovered that by using higher radio frequencies than before the energy threshold can be lowered dramatically from 100 PeV to about 1 PeV. The new radio array will significantly enhance the present PeV particle detectors at South Pole in both, accuracy and aperture towards lower elevations. One of the most promising candidates for the origin of cosmic rays, the Galactic Center presently outside of the field of view, will be observable 24/7 with the radio array. The extrapolation of classical TeV observations predicts more than twenty PeV photons to be detected by the radio array within three years. Since the radio array is sensitive simultaneously to cosmic photons and charged particles from all directions of the sky, the search for any photon sources can be done in parallel to cosmic-ray physics with unprecedented accuracy and exposure in the energy range of 1 PeV to 1 EeV. Thus, this radio array will create highest impact in astroparticle physics by the following scientific objectives all targeting the most energetic particles in our Galaxy: PeV photons and their correlation with sources of neutrinos and charged cosmic rays, mass separation of cosmic rays, search for mass-dependent anisotropies, particle physics beyond the reach of LHC. This timely proposal is a unique chance for European leadership in this novel technique. It provides the chance for scientific breakthrough by detection of the first PeV photons ever, and by the discovery of natural accelerators of multi-PeV particles.
Campo scientifico
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technologyradio frequency
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsneutrinos
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsphotons
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
76131 Karlsruhe
Germania