MARIACHI

For the type of musical group, see Mariachi.

MARIACHI, the Mixed Apparatus for Radar Investigation of Cosmic-rays of High Ionization, is an apparatus for the detection of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR) via bi-static radar interferometry using VHF transmitters. MARIACHI is also the name of the research project created and directed by Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on Long Island, New York, initially intended to verify the concept that VHF signals can be reflected off the ionization patch produced by a cosmic ray shower. Project emphasis subsequently shifted to the attempted detection of radio wave reflections from a high energy ionization beam apparatus located at BNL's NASA Space Radiation Laboratory.

Its inventors hope the MARIACHI apparatus will detect UHECR over much larger areas than previously possible, and that it will also detect ultra high energy neutrino flux. The ground array detectors are scintillator arrays that are built and operated by high school students and teachers.

External links

• Implementation of ground-based scintillation detectors as a tool for studying cosmic ray activity- Matthew Lucia, University of Notre Dame; Matthew Captaine, St. Norbert College; Dima Vavilov, Michael Marx, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University