Determination of the energy scale of cosmic ray measurements using the Auger Engineering Radio Array
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(Published version)
Date
2025
Authors
Abdul Halim, A.
Abreu, P.
Aglietta, M.
Allekotte, I.
Almeida Cheminant, K.
Almela, A.
Aloisio, R.
Alvarez-Muñiz, J.
Ambrosone, A.
Ammerman Yebra, J.
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Conference paper
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Proceedings of Science, 2025, vol.501, pp.0292-1-0292-12
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International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC) (15 Jul 2025 - 24 Jul 2025 : Geneva, Switzerland)
Abstract
The accurate determination of the absolute energy scale in cosmic ray measurements is both a challenging and fundamentally important task. We present how measurements of radio pulses from extensive air showers with the Auger Engineering Radio Array, combined with per-event simulations of radio emission using the CoREAS extension of CORSIKA, allow us to determine the energy scale of cosmic rays between 3⋅1017 eV and several 1018 eV. Our analysis accounts for many factors, each of which is controlled on the 5% level or better. The absolute calibration of the antennas and the entire analog signal chain builds on a Galactic calibration in combination with a detailed understanding of the antenna-gain patterns. Additional key elements include compensation for temperature-dependent signal amplification, continuous detector health monitoring, an active veto for thunderstorm conditions, an unbiased event reconstruction, and per-event atmospheric modeling in the simulations. The analysis benefits from a high-statistics dataset of over 800 measured cosmic ray showers. We describe our analysis method, perform multiple cross-checks, and evaluate systematic uncertainties. We find that absolute energies determined with AERA are 12% higher than those established with the Auger Fluorescence Detector, a result well in agreement within systematic uncertainties and thus a strong independent confirmation of the absolute energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.
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© Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).