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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 40: Cosmic Rays II

T 40.5: Talk

Tuesday, March 17, 2026, 17:15–17:30, KS 00.006

A bayesian method for radio-based air shower reconstruction — •Karen Terveer¹ and Anna Nelles^1,2 — ¹ECAP, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany — ²Deutsches Elektronen-Synchroton (DESY) Zeuthen, Germany

Over the past decade, radio detection of cosmic-ray air showers has established itself as a standalone technique. Observatories such as the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) have successfully constrained the mass composition in the 10^16.5 - 10¹⁸ eV range, capturing the transition region from galactic to extragalactic sources. Although standard reconstruction methods based on CoREAS simulations achieve a state-of-the-art X_max precision of 19 g/cm², they are computationally expensive and do not use all available signal information. We present a new reconstruction method based on Information Field Theory (IFT) that simultaneously uses particle and radio data. The Bayesian framework of IFT ensures rigorous uncertainty quantification and reconstruction of the full posterior distribution. Using JAX for automatic differentiation, the method enables efficient gradient-based inference in high-dimensional parameter spaces. We present the first results of this technique applied to LOFAR data, representing the first approach to exploit a more complete information content of these datasets.

Keywords: Radio detection; Reconstruction; Bayesian; LOFAR; Information FIeld Theory