Radio pulses from cosmic rays

Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), with energies exceeding 10^19eV, are rare. A random square kilometer on Earth is hit by a few dozen per century. But their trajectories, relatively undeflected by intergalactic magnetic fields, might reveal their enigmatic sources. So astrophysicists build enormous ground-detector arrays. But even the flagship 3000-km^2 Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, which … Read more →

Observation of Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays with the ANITA Balloon-borne Radio Interferometer

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We report the observation of sixteen cosmic ray events of mean energy of 1.5 × 10^19 eV, via radio pulses originating from the interaction of the cosmic ray air shower with the Antarctic geomagnetic field, a process known as geosynchrotron emission. We present the first ultra-wideband, far-field measurements of the radio spectral density of geosynchrotron … Read more →