Observing Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with Smartphones

Daniel Whiteson; Michael Mulhearn; Chase Shimmin; Kyle Cranmer; Kyle Brodie; Dustin Burns

doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2016.02.002

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arXiv · 1410.2895

Observing Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with Smartphones

Daniel Whiteson·Michael Mulhearn·Chase Shimmin·Kyle Cranmer·Kyle Brodie·Dustin Burns

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Abstract

We propose a novel approach for observing cosmic rays at ultra-high energy ($>10^{18}$~eV) by repurposing the existing network of smartphones as a ground detector array. Extensive air showers generated by cosmic rays produce muons and high-energy photons, which can be detected by the CMOS sensors of smartphone cameras. The small size and low efficiency of each sensor is compensated by the large number of active phones. We show that if user adoption targets are met, such a network will have significant observing power at the highest energies.

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Daniel Whiteson, Michael Mulhearn, Chase Shimmin, Kyle Cranmer, Kyle Brodie, Dustin Burns. 2015-10-22. Observing Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with Smartphones. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2016.02.002

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