A New Detection Technique For The Observation of ZeV Cosmic Rays

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9527421 Kieda Showers produced by the highest energy cosmic ray primaries, with energy above 10 GeV have been observed in scintillator and Cerenkov arrays and the Fly's Eye. the former detects shower components, the latter their fluorescence produced in the atmosphere. Both techniques have limited aperture not likely to be substantially increased because of cost. This grant funds a new approach that may provide substantially larger aperture with comparable resolution at significantly lower cost than is possible with conventional methods. Calculations show that Cerenkov light emitted by the shower particles is intense enough to produce detectable signals (perhaps even in daylight!) in non-imaging planar detectors arrayed on the ground. Of the various candidate technologies, single- crystal CZ-Si solar panels, will be the focus of the research, those being readily available and relatively inexpensive. This novel idea will be tested with measurements of the sensitivity of the solar panels and other possible detectors and with an instrumented small set of panels at the site of the CASA/MIA/HiRes cosmic-ray detector system to detect showers in coincidence with it. ***