The ongoing AugerPrime upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory will
yield sensitivity and precision for measuring ultra-high energy (UHE)
cosmic rays that are significantly improved over the baseline design. A key part is the installation of the
Radio Detector (RD), consisting of loop antennas mounted on top of each
of the 1660 water-Cherenkov detectors (WCD). These antennas, with
polarizations both parallel and perpendicular to Earth’s magnetic field, are
sensitive to inclined air showers
and will also improve the sky coverage and exposure of the
observatory. Of special interest is the great sensitivity to the
electromagnetic component of air showers, yielding new information for
the reconstruction of the primary mass, energy and arrival direction.
Complementing traditional particle detectors like the WCD, the
combination of both yields new opportunities to detect rare primary
particles, e.g. UHE photons and neutrinos with a large identification
probability.
Here we present the status and future prospects of the RD. With mass production and deployment ongoing, we show air shower
statistics and reconstructions of the already installed detector stations. We detail the layout and integration of the RD, demonstrating the
potential of the observatory including radio measurements and RD
triggering, especially to detect air showers with weak particle footprints.
We show that the new trigger enables the measurement of events for which
traditional particle detectors are less sensitive.