A Surface Radio Array for the Enhancement of IceTop and its Science Prospects

¹ Institute of Experimental Particle Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe Germany
² Institute for Nuclear Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe Germany
³ Institute for Data Processing and Electronics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe Germany
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE USA

^★ e-mail: mail: aswathi.balagopal@kit.edu

Published online: 24 September 2019

Abstract

Radio detection of air showers in the current era has progressed immensely to effectively extract the properties of these air showers. Primary cosmic rays with energies of hundreds of PeV have been successfully measured with the method of radio detection. There are also attempts to observe high-energy neutrinos with this technique. Current radio experiments measuring cosmic-ray air showers mostly operate in the frequency range of 30-80 MHz. An optimization of the frequency band of operation can be done for maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio that can be achieved by an array of radio antennas at the South Pole, operated along with IceTop. Such an array can improve the reconstruction of air showers performed with IceTop. The prospect of using such an optimized radio array for measuring gamma rays of PeV energies from the Galactic Center is discussed.