High energy cosmic rays with Lofar
Contents
Group members
Introduction
Links
Group Members
Prof. dr. Jan Kuijpers,
Prof. dr. Heino Falcke,
Dr. Andreas Horneffer,
Dr. Jelena Petrovic,
Drs. Stijn Buitink,
Drs. Sven Lafèbre and
Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Nigl.
Background
Cosmic Rays are energetic particles, which arrive on earth from outer space. Mainly, these
particles are ionized atomic nuclei of elements from hydrogen to iron, but also electrons,
positrons or neutrinos.
The incoming particles lose their energy in collisions with other particles in the
atmosphere of the Earth. This results in a chain reaction of collisions, which can be
detected on the Earth's surface as a particle shower. Depending on the energy of the
incoming particle, these Extensive Air Showers (EAS) can consist of up to a hundred
billion particles within a radius of a few hundreds of meters. From the initial hit down to the
Earth's surface, the cascade of collisions takes only a few tens of nanoseconds.
Lofar-antennas consist of a plastic tube pyramid. An antenna is approximately two meters tall.
The electrons and positrons created in the shower generate radiation in the low frequency
radio regime. An important purpose of Lofar (LOw Frequency ARray) is to detect this
radiation.
Links
See the following sites for more information about Lofar and LOPES:
Data from Lofar test stations:
Reference:
Publications:
