1999/07/15 by R. Atkins, W. Benbow, Atkins, R. +102
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #Neutrino Physics Research #Particle Detector Development and Performance #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9907214
4 pages, submitted to XXVI International Cosmic Ray Conference, Salt Lake City
arxiv created 1999/07/15 · openalex publication_date 1999/07/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Previous works have shown that water Cherenkov detectors have superior sensitivity to those of scintillation counters as applied to detecting extensive air showers (EAS). This is in large part due to their much higher sensitivity to EAS photons which are more than five times more numerous than EAS electrons. Large area water Cherenkov detectors can be constructed relatively cheaply and operated reliably. A sparse detector array has been designed which uses these types of detectors to substantially increase the area over which the Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory collects EAS information. Improvements to the Milagro detector's performance characteristics and sensitivity derived from this array and preliminary results from a prototype array currently installed near the Milagro detector will be presented.