Doctoral Research
The ultra high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the most energetic charged particles known to man. Having kinetic energies comparable to playing a game of catch with a baseball, these minute particles provide a means for particle physicist to study particle interactions at energies far beyond that capable at the most powerful particle collider facilities. However, their astronomical origin and production mechanism still eludes our knowledge, which are the driving reasons why more detections of these particles are needed. In my analysis for my dissertation I explore the feasibility of a new detection technique through an instrument called MIDAS. If you're interested in learning more about this analysis feel free to read through my dissertation to find out more. I hope you enjoy the knowledge contained therein as much as I enjoyed doing the research.
Figure: Constraint placed on microwave emission from extensive air showers. Y-axis corresponds to the logarithm of the intensity of the microwave emission and x-axis corresponds to the degree of coherent emission. The solid horizontal line indicates the reference microwave emission flux determined via laboratory experiments. The grey region of the parameter space indicates the (I, alpha) pairs that have been rejected as plausible emission parameters by this analysis at 95% confidence level.