Cosmic-ray air-shower thickness timing analyses: Expanding a small array's acceptance

摘要

A new, small-scale, detector utilizing the finite thickness of air-shower "pancakes" has been developed and operated on the roof of the physics building at the University of Minnesota. (MR. CRATE -Minnesota Rooftop Cosmic-Ray Air-shower Timing Experiment). Such techniques were pioneered by Linsley and collaborators, carried forth in a variety of forms through the 1970s-80s, and with differing technologies by Watson and colleagues. The primary interest in such detector is the ability to use timing of the air shower to allow the array to trigger on events that fall outside of the array. In principal, one can use a single detector to observe air showers out to a distance at which the detector runs out of statistics. The Mark-I detector was simply that. More extensive detectors using these techniques have also been designed and built with an eye towards incorporating them into existing underground or surface air shower detectors. Preliminary results and design studies will be discussed.