Pooja Surajbali Heidelberg

HAWC-Introduction and Upgrade

Cosmic-ray Particles of very high energies produce extensive showers of secondary particles in Earth's atmosphere. These particles move faster than the speed of light in the medium therefore radiate Cherenkov radiation. HAWC- High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory uses photomultiplier tubes submerged in tanks of pure water to detect such photons. It has a sensitivity to TeV scale and operates 24-hours a day. To reconstruct the properties of the primary particles, a detailed simulation of the shower is required, however, many are poorly reconstructed because the shower core falls outside the array. A sparse outrigger array is currently being tested as an upgrade to HAWC. This array constitutes of smaller water tanks with Cherenkov detectors that pinpoint the core position and hence improve on angular resolution of reconstructed showers.