Microwave radiation emitted by Extended Air Showers in the GHz range: a new way to detect astronomical gamma rays?

The radiofrequency emission (in the frequency range 1 MHz-10 GHz) from Extended Air Showers produced by cosmic rays impinging on the Earth atmosphere has been investigated since about 1960, because it could be an effective means to detect EAS. In this talk I present our experimental investigation about the radiation emitted by a 100 keV electron beam in air. Our measurements can be interpreted as incoherent bremsstrahlung radiation from the electrons during their slowdown. We extrapolated our results to higher energies by means of a detailed MonteCarlo simulation. I discuss these results also in relation to other known emission mechanisms of microwave radiation, and show that such emission might be a new way to detect cosmic-ray sources above ~100 GeV, such, for example, astronomical gamma-ray sources.

Il seminario si terrà in Aula Multimediale alle ore 11:00 il giorno 15 Giugno.

Il relatore sarà il Dr. Enrico Conti della Sezione INFN di Padova.