Daniel Whiteson, Michael Mulhearn, Chase Shimmin
Kyle Cranmer, Kyle Brodie, Dustin Burns
2014 · arXiv
We propose a novel approach for observing cosmic rays at ultra-high energy ($>10^{18}$~eV) by repurposing the existing network of smartphones as a ground detector array. Extensive air showers generated by cosmic rays produce muons and high-energy photons, which can be detected by the CMOS sensors of smartphone cameras. The small size and low efficiency of each sensor is compensated by the large number of active phones. We show that if user adoption targets are met, such a network will have significant observing power at the highest energies.
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4 selected excerpts · 4 total mentions
>Crucial to their plans was making cheap, tabletop γ-ray detectors that they could install in dozens of sites. On a related note: there's a citizen science experiment that uses a volunteer-run array of old smartphones with taped over cameras to detect particle showers caused by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic-Ray_Extremely_Distribut... https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.08351 https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.2895
There was also this one, a bit earlier, "Observing Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with Smartphones". https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.2895 I (thought I) signed up to be informed of beta releases, but never heard anything. I just checked their website[0] and it mentions a beta app, but that seems to just go to a signup page. [0] https://crayfis.io
> I do not think we are anywhere close to a DIY subatomic particle detector You've probably got one in your pocket already https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.2895
The actual paper[0] title is somewhat precise: "Observing Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with Smartphones" [0] http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.2895
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