Comparative study of radio pulses from simulated hadron-, electron-, and neutrino-initiated showers in ice in the GeV-PeV range
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045 (United States)
High energy particle showers produce coherent Cherenkov radio emission in dense, radio-transparent media such as cold ice. Using PYTHIA and GEANT simulation tools, we make a comparative study among electromagnetic (EM) and hadronic showers initiated by single particles and neutrino showers initiated by multiple particles produced at the neutrino-nucleon event vertex. We include all the physics processes and do a complete 3D simulation up to 100 TeV for all showers and to 1 PeV for electron- and neutrino-induced showers. We calculate the radio pulses for energies between 100 GeV and 1 PeV and find hadron showers, and consequently neutrino showers, are not as efficient below 1 PeV at producing radio pulses as the electromagnetic showers. The agreement improves as energy increases, however, and by a PeV and above the difference disappears. By looking at the 3D structure of the showers in time, we show that the hadronic showers are not as compact as the EM showers and hence the radiation is not as coherent as EM shower emission at the same frequency. We show that the ratio of emitted pulse strength to shower tracklength is a function only of a single, coherence parameter, independent of species and energy of initiating particle.
- OSTI ID:
- 20697971
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 70, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.70.103003; (c) 2004 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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