Emission of Radio Waves in Particle Showers: Validation of Microscopic Simulations with the SLAC T-510 Experiment and their Potential in the Future Square Kilometre Array

Particle showers are created from cascading interactions when high-energy particles collide with matter, e.g. with air in the case of cosmic radiation, or with a particle detector in the case of experiments at CERN. These showers can consist of billions of particles, mostly electrons, positrons and photons. They emit radio waves when the absorbing medium is in a magnetic field, and this radio emission can be used as a novel means of detecting and drawing inferences on the shower and the primary particle. The new method is currently being established in cosmic ray research, where large antenna arrays may soon replace or complement traditional particle detectors. In thi