2014/12/04 by J. D. Bray, Justin D. Bray, R. D. Ekers +10
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Computer science #Electronic engineering #Neutrino Physics Research #Optics #Physics #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Radio frequency #Radio telescope #Sensitivity (control systems) #Telecommunications #Telescope #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2014.11.008
Accepted by Astroparticle Physics; 23 pages, 17 figures, 3 tables
openalex publication_date 2014/12/04 · arxiv created 2014/12/14 · arxiv updated 2014/12/16 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We describe an experiment using the Parkes radio telescope in the 1.2-1.5 GHz frequency range as part of the LUNASKA project, to search for nanosecond-scale pulses from particle cascades in the Moon, which may be triggered by ultra-high-energy astroparticles. Through the combination of a highly sensitive multi-beam radio receiver, a purpose-built backend and sophisticated signal-processing techniques, we achieve sensitivity to radio pulses with a threshold electric field strength of 0.0053 μV/m/MHz, lower than previous experiments by a factor of three. We observe no pulses in excess of this threshold in observations with an effective duration of 127 hours. The techniques we employ, including compensating for the phase, dispersion and spectrum of the expected pulse, are relevant for future lunar radio experiments.