Demonstrating Agreement between Radio and Fluorescence Measurements of the Depth of Maximum of Extensive Air Showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-8-2024

Department

Department of Physics

Abstract

We show, for the first time, radio measurements of the depth of shower maximum (𝑋max) of air showers induced by cosmic rays that are compared to measurements of the established fluorescence method at the same location. Using measurements at the Pierre Auger Observatory we show full compatibility between our radio and the previously published fluorescence dataset, and between a subset of air showers observed simultaneously with both radio and fluorescence techniques, a measurement setup unique to the Pierre Auger Observatory. Furthermore, we show radio 𝑋max resolution as a function of energy and demonstrate the ability to make competitive high-resolution 𝑋max measurements with even a sparse radio array. With this, we show that the radio technique is capable of cosmic-ray mass composition studies, both at Auger and at other experiments.

Publication Title

Physical Review Letters

Share

COinS