HiSCORE

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The HiSCORE experiment ( acronym for English H undred * i S quare km C osmic OR igin E xplorer ) is a project at the University of Hamburg to research the origin and nature of cosmic rays .

HiSCORE is intended to be able to detect both direct cosmic rays and gamma rays from cosmic rays . With a large, wide-angled detector field, air showers are to be measured using their Cherenkov light flash . These air showers are caused by primary gamma rays and cosmic rays. As a result, HiSCORE will measure in an energy range for gamma radiation in which it has not previously been possible to measure with comparable sensitivity.

aims

The main motivation of HiSCORE is to clarify the question of the origin of cosmic rays, which remains unanswered almost 100 years after its discovery by Victor Franz Hess . Further motivations are:

The detector

The detector field will consist of a few 100 to 1000 individual stations, which are to be arranged in a grid approximately at sea level at a distance of 100 m to 200 m. A station consists of four light-sensitive detectors ( photomultipliers ), which, switched in coincidence , can record the Cherenkov light flashes. The recorded light signals allow a reconstruction of the air showers and thus the primary gamma rays and cosmic rays (primary particles) that trigger them. The light intensity and the time distribution of the light signals provide information about the direction, the energy and the nature ( gamma quantum or hadron ) of the primary particle.

The project was initiated in 2008 and is currently in the first phase, with prototype measurements on the site of the Tunka experiment in Siberia . The project is supported by the University of Hamburg, the German Research Foundation and the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers . HiSCORE is also mentioned in the roadmap of the AStroParticle ERAnet under its previous name SCORE ( S tudy for a C osmic OR igin E xplorer ) .

The construction of at least 25 detector stations in a test field ( engineering array , short form HiSCORE-EA ) on the Tunka site is planned by 2013 . The financing of the first 25 stations for HiSCORE-EA is in place. Depending on how many additional stations will be added from the Russian side, HiSCORE-EA can cover an area of ​​0.5 to 1 km². Preparatory activities for a larger detector field, which is planned to be set up in Australia, include prototyping work, the simulation of the detector, the development of reconstruction algorithms and the measurement of the night sky glow in Australia.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Tluczykont, Daniel Hampf, Dieter Horns, Tanja Kneiske, Robert Eichler, Rayk Nachtigall, Gavin Rowell: The ground-based large-area wide-angle γ-ray and cosmic-ray experiment HiSCORE . In: Advances in Space Research . tape 48 , no. 12 , 2011, p. 1935–1941 , doi : 10.1016 / j.asr.2011.08.004 .
  2. ↑ Martin Tluczykont, Daniel Hampf, Dieter Horns, Tanja Kneiske, Gavin Rowell: The new large-area wide-angle ground-based cosmic-ray and gamma-ray detector SCORE . tape 38 , 2010, p. 2334 ( PDF ).
  3. ↑ Press release of the Helmholtz Russia Joint Research Group
  4. ↑ ASPERA 2, European Roadmap for Astroparticle Physics, 2011 Edition, November 1, 2011
  5. ↑ ASPERA ( Memento of the original from November 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aspera-eu.org
  6. ↑ Berezhnev, SF; Besson, D .; Korobchenko, AV et al .: The Tunka-133 EAS Cherenkov light array: status of 2011 . 2012, arxiv : 1201.2122 .
  7. ↑ M. Tluczykont, T. Kneiske, D. Hampf, D. Horns: Gamma-ray and Cosmic Ray Astrophysics from 10 TeV to 1 EeV with the large-area (> 10 km²) air-shower Detector SCORE . 2009, arxiv : 0909.0445 .
  8. ↑ Daniel Hampf, Martin Tluczykont, Dieter Horns: Event reconstruction with the Proposed large area Cherenkov air shower detector SCORE . 2009, arxiv : 0909.0663 .
  9. ^ Daniel Hampf, Gavin Rowell, Neville Wild, Tristan Sudholz, Dieter Horns, Martin Tluczykont: Measurement of night sky brightness in southern Australia . In: Advances in Space Research . tape 48 , no. 6 , 2011, p. 1017-1025 , doi : 10.1016 / j.asr.2011.05.010 .