Elizabeth McNany with Corbin Covault
Properties of Cosmic Ray Air Showers as Measured by a Prototype Cherekov Detector System
When high energy cosmic rays interact with the upper atmosphere, a shower of particles is created that generate Cherenkov radiation as their travel towards the surface of the earth. To study this radiation, a new prototype detector has been constructed with four scintillation panels and a central photomultiplier tube to detect the visible Cherenkov light. This detector will be deployed so as to collect data from real cosmic ray particle showers in the field. The results collected from this detector will be compared in detail to a computer simulation that has been designed to predict the measured properties of air showers and Cherenkov radiation. The simulation will predict the distribution of incoming particles, taking into account various sources, directions, and energies of particles corresponding to individual cosmic rays. By comparing the output to actual results we may verify the operation of our prototype. These results will ultimately be used to design and fabricate a larger detector system that can be used to study the the astrophysical origin of the cosmic rays.