Design and performances of electromagnetic particle detector for LHAASO-KM2A

In the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) project, the one kilometer square extensive air shower array (KM2A) is the the largest detector array in terms of effective area. It consists of 5635 electromagnetic particle detectors (EDs) and 1221 muon detectors (MDs). Each ED is composed of 16 scintillator tiles readout by wavelength-shifting fibers that are bundled and attached by a 25 mm PMT. The design of the unit and its performances, such as photoelectron yield, time resolution and uniformity, are discussed in detail. An assembling scheme for the whole ED is established to guarantee the uniformity throughout all 16 tiles in a single ED and all EDs in mass production.     

Performances and long-term stability of the LHAASO-KM2A prototype array

A prototype array for the LHAASO-KM2A, which consists of 42 detector units and fully overlaps the ARGO-YBJ experiment, was set up at the Yangbajing cosmic ray observatory and has been in stable operation since Octoter 2010. The resulting performances of the KM2A electromagnetic particle detector prototypes fully meet the design requirements. Through hybrid observation of cosmic ray showers with the ARGO-YBJ experiment, the performances and long-term stability of the prototype array are tested and the results are consistent with expectation. The cosmic ray moon shadow observed by the prototype array is also presented.