A high-precision interpolation method for pulsed radio signals from cosmic-ray air showers

Arthur Corstanje, Stijn Buitink, Mitja Desmet, Jörg Hörandel, Tim Huege, Godwin Komla Krampah, Pragati Mitra, Hershal Pandya, Olaf Scholten, H. Falcke, Brian M. Hare, Jorg Horandel, V. B. Jhansi, N. Karastathis, K. Mulrey, Anna Nelles, K. Nivedita , K. Terveer, S. Thoudam, Thi Ngoc Gia TrinhS. ter Veen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
26 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Analysis of radio signals from cosmic-ray induced air showers has been shown to be a reliable method to extract shower parameters such as primary energy and depth of shower maximum. The required detailed air shower simulations take 1 to 3 days of CPU time per shower for a few hundred antennas. With nearly $60,000$ antennas envisioned to be used for air shower studies at the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), simulating all of these would come at unreasonable costs. We present an interpolation algorithm to reconstruct the full pulse time series at any position in the radio footprint, from a set of antennas simulated on a polar grid. Relying on Fourier series representations and cubic splines, it significantly improves on existing linear methods. We show that simulating about 200 antennas is sufficient for high-precision analysis in the SKA era, including e.g. interferometry which relies on accurate pulse shapes and timings. We therefore propose the interpolation algorithm and its implementation as a useful extension of radio simulation codes, to limit computational effort while retaining accuracy.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberP09005
Number of pages27
JournalJINST
Volume18
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sep 2023

Bibliographical note

21 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in JINST (Journal of Instrumentation)

Keywords

  • astro-ph.IM

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A high-precision interpolation method for pulsed radio signals from cosmic-ray air showers'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this