Description
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a radio telescope currently under construction in South Africa and Australia. Its low-frequency part (50-350 MHz), located in Australia, features nearly 60,000 antennas in a core region of about 1 km diameter.
With such an extreme antenna density, surpassing e.g. LOFAR by two orders of magnitude, this observatory is well equipped to make the most precise radio measurements of individual air showers.
A decade of experience with LOFAR serves as a foundation for a next major step in reconstruction precision. We present a simulation of the reconstruction capabilities, using CoREAS-simulated showers, a realistic model of the antennas, and of the Galactic noise background.
We apply the method used at LOFAR for reconstruction the depth of shower maximum Xmax that is the basis of cosmic-ray mass composition analysis. We consider the use of beamforming within this method, combining groups of nearby antennas to boost the signal-to-noise ratio.
The precision on individual air showers is indeed about 3 times better than at LOFAR, and using beamforming the energy range can be extended downward at least from $10^{16.7}$ to $10^{16}$ eV.
This sets a baseline to what can be achieved, both in energy range extension as in reconstruction precision, from methods that haven proven robust in practice.
We discuss the implications for producing a state-of-the-art mass composition measurement.
Further significant progress is expected, as new, more detailed analysis methods are being developed.
| Talk category | NOVA Network 3 |
|---|---|
| Preference for a talk or poster | Talk |
