Exploring the sensitivity of in-ice radio detectors to cosmic ray mass composition
Abstract
In-ice radio detectors have been developed primarily for the detection of high-energy neutrinos via the Askaryan effect, but have recently been shown to also be sensitive to cosmic ray air showers impacting the ice sheet. Using CORSIKA 8 to simulate impacting air showers, we find that the lateral width of the in-ice cascade is sensitive to the atomic mass of the primary cosmic ray. The width of the shower core is accessible through the shape of the Askaryan radio spectrum, while the amplitude encodes the total in-ice charge excess. Using these two observables, we show that in-ice radio detectors can be used to measure cosmic ray mass composition in the region above 1017eV if the in-ice receivers are placed to adequately sample the Askaryan emission pattern. We also show that the in-ice core width is highly, but not exactly, correlated with the depth of maximum particle count (Xmax), the most commonly used observable for reconstructing cosmic ray mass composition.
Related
- Energy estimation of direct and reflected cosmic-ray events aboard balloon-borne radio detectors
- Tracing the Cosmic web across Cosmic time through SKA observations of radio galaxies
- Reconstruction of very inclined air showers with radio data and application to the first GRANDProto300 cosmic-ray candidates
- The Cosmic Radio Dipole and Observer Effects in SKA all-sky surveys
- Cosmic Ray Observations using Coincident Scintillator and Radio Signals with the Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON)
BibTeX
@misc{alden2026exploring,
title = {{Exploring the sensitivity of in-ice radio detectors to cosmic ray mass composition}},
author = {Nathaniel Alden and Marissa Boucher and Cosmin Deaconu and Abigail Vieregg and Philipp Windischhofer},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.28536},
eprint = {2608.28536},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28536},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Exploring the sensitivity of in-ice radio detectors to cosmic ray mass composition
AU - Nathaniel Alden
AU - Marissa Boucher
AU - Cosmin Deaconu
AU - Abigail Vieregg
AU - Philipp Windischhofer
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.28536
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28536
AB - In-ice radio detectors have been developed primarily for the detection of high-energy neutrinos via the Askaryan effect, but have recently been shown to also be sensitive to cosmic ray air showers impacting the ice sheet. Using CORSIKA 8 to simulate impacting air showers, we find that the lateral width of the in-ice cascade is sensitive to the atomic mass of the primary cosmic ray. The width of the shower core is accessible through the shape of the Askaryan radio spectrum, while the amplitude encodes the total in-ice charge excess. Using these two observables, we show that in-ice radio detectors can be used to measure cosmic ray mass composition in the region above 10^17eV if the in-ice receivers are placed to adequately sample the Askaryan emission pattern. We also show that the in-ice core width is highly, but not exactly, correlated with the depth of maximum particle count (X_max), the most commonly used observable for reconstructing cosmic ray mass composition.
ER -