The FAST Project - A Next Generation UHECR Observatory

¹ Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
² Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
³ Department of Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, S.A., Australia
⁴ Palacky University, RCPTM, Olomouc, Czech Republic
⁵ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
⁶ High Energy Astrophysics Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

^a e-mail: fujii@icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Published online: 29 March 2017

Abstract

We present a concept for large-area, low-cost detection of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with a Fluorescence detector Array of Single-pixel Telescopes (FAST)^b, addressing the requirements for the next generation of UHECR experiments. In the FAST design, a large field of view is covered by a few pixels at the focal plane of a mirror or Fresnel lens. We report on the first results of a FAST prototype installed at the Telescope Array (TA) site, consisting of a single 200 mm photomultiplier tube (PMT) at the focal plane of a 1 m² Fresnel lens system taken from the prototype of the JEM-EUSO experiment. We also report on the status of the full-scale FAST prototype soon to be installed at the TA site, comprising a segmented spherical mirror of 1.6 m diameter and a 2 × 2 PMT camera.