Towards the radio-detection of cosmic particles with the SKA
Meeting Programme
Tuesday 5 May
08:30 - Bus from hotel
09:00 - Registration
Session 1: Cosmic rays and the SKA
09:30 - Welcome (Ralph Spencer)
09:45 - Cosmic ray physics (Ralph Engel)
10:40 - Coffee
11:10 - The lunar technique: history and current status (Clancy James)
11:50 - Radio EAS measurements: history and current status (Frank Schroeder)
12:30 - Lunch (and conference photo)
13:30 - SKA Phase 1 & 2 (Robert Braun)
14:30 - Coffee
Session 2: SKA-EAS science and engineering
14:45 - SKA-EAS science chapter (Tim Huege)
15:30 - SKA perspective on proposed engineering changes (Wallace Turner)
15:45 - Discussion
16:15 - Coffee
Session 3: SKA-lunar science and engineering
16:30 - SKA-lunar science chapter (Justin Bray)
17:15 - SKA perspective on proposed engineering changes (Wallace Turner)
17:30 - Discussion
18:00 - Bus to dinner
19:00 - Dinner, with talk on first radio cosmic-ray observations (Sir Francis Graham-Smith)
22:00 - Bus to hotel
Wednesday 6 May
08:30 - Bus from hotel
Session 4: Workshop on SKA technical challenges
(Workshop session: apart from the first talk, each item will consist of a slide or two about current issues followed by general discussion.)
Chairs: Olaf Scholten and Tim Huege
09:00 - SKA signal pipelines (Marco Caiazzo)
09:30 - Overview of SKA-EAS signal path (Tim Huege)
09:50 - Digitisation and buffering: dynamic range requirements, buffer size, readout window (Tim Huege)
10:10 - Triggering: radio self-triggering, particle detector trigger & interface (Tim Huege)
10:30 - Coffee
11:00 - Particle detectors: scintillator array design, RFI, space and power consumption (Stijn Buitink)
11:20 - Data: data transport & logistics, data products (Stijn Buitink)
11:40 - Calibration: antenna model, timing & amplitude calibration (Stijn Buitink)
12:00 - Overview of SKA-lunar signal path (Justin Bray)
12:15 - Beamformer: required capabilities, beam placement, array size, data output rate, commensality (Justin Bray)
12:30 - Lunch
13:30 - Dedispersion: source of ionospheric data (ionosonde, GPS, lunar polarisation), and implementation (Sander ter Veen for Maaijke Mevius)
13:50 - Detection: inversion of polyphase filterbank, interpolation, phase correction (Sander ter Veen for Maaijke Mevius)
14:10 - Triggering: anticoincidence scheme, beam overlap and self-veto, RFI environment (Sander ter Veen for Maaijke Mevius)
14:30 - Data: buffering, data transport & logistics, data products (Sander ter Veen)
15:00 - Coffee
Session 5: Strategic planning discussion
15:30 - Discussion (chair: Clancy James)
- formal collaborations: Focus Group, Science Working Group, Key Science Project?
- expectations from Stockholm Key Science meeting
- funding opportunities
- papers to be written
- engineering change proposals
- timeline for all of the above
- define Session 7
18:00 - Bus to hotel
Thursday 7 May
08:30 - Bus from hotel
Session 6: Modeling and analysis workshop
(Workshop session: apart from the first talk, each item will consist of a slide or two about current issues followed by general discussion.)
Chair: Olaf Scholten
09:00 - Lunar modeling and analysis overview (Olaf Scholten)
09:10 - Surface roughness and inhomogeneities at scales larger, smaller, and similar to observing wavelength (Clancy James)
09:30 - Shower length and LPM effect; charged- and neutral-current neutrino interactions (Jaime Alvarez-Muniz)
09:50 - Directional sensitivity; polarisation and frequency dependence (Justin Bray)
10:10 - Monte Carlo vs analytical models (Justin Bray)
10:30 - Coffee
Chair: Tim Huege
11:00 - Reconstruction (incoherent): energy, Xmax determination, limiting factors (Stijn Buitink)
11:15 - Reconstruction (coherent): near-field imaging approaches (Tim Huege)
11:30 - Preliminary SKA simulation study (Anne Zilles)
11:45 - Particle detector motivation and options: muon detectors etc. (Stijn Buitink)
12:00 - Optimum band: higher frequencies? (Stijn Buitink)
12:10 - Plasma effects (Clancy James)
12:20 - Thunderstorms (Stijn Buitink)
12:30 - Lunch
Session 7: Future plans and work allocation
13:30 - Discussion:
- probably in reference to the next ECP stage
- decide scope/priorities during the Wednesday 'strategic planning session'
15:00 - Coffee
15:15 - Further discussion
16:30 - Coffee
Session 8: Wrap-up
16:45 - EAS wrap-up (Stijn Buitink)
17:15 - Lunar wrap-up (Olaf Scholten)
17:45 - Goodbye (Ralph Spencer)
18:00 - Meeting ends; bus to hotel