Time-domain measurement of broadband coherent Cherenkov radiation

We report on further analysis of coherent microwave Cherenkov impulses emitted via the Askaryan mechanism from high-energy electromagnetic showers produced at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). In this report, the time-domain based analysis of the measurements made with a broadband (nominally 1–18 GHz) log periodic dipole array antenna is described. The theory of a transmit-receive antenna system based on time-dependent effective height operator is summarized and applied to fully characterize the measurement antenna system and to reconstruct the electric field induced via the Askaryan process. The observed radiation intensity and phase as functions of frequency were found to agree with expectations from 0.75–11.5 GHz within experimental errors on the normalized electric field magnitude and the relative phase; sigma_R|E|=0.039 µV/MHz/TeV and sigma_phi=17°. This is the first time this agreement has been observed over such a broad bandwidth, and the first measurement of the relative phase variation of an Askaryan pulse. The importance of validation of the Askaryan mechanism is significant since it is viewed as the most promising way to detect cosmogenic neutrino fluxes at E_nu>~10¹⁵ eV.

©2006 The American Physical Society