Properties of the Lunar Detection Mode for ZeV-Scale Particles with LOFAR

Abstract

The steep decrease of the flux of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) provides a challenge to answer the long standing question about their origin and nature. A significant increase in detector volume may be achieved byemploying Earth’s moon as a detector that is read out using existing Earth-bound radio telescopes by searching for the radio pulses emitted by the particle shower in the lunar rock. In this contribution we will report on the properties of a corresponding detection mode currently under development for the LOFAR Radio telescope.