Cosmic ray and neutrino measurements with LOFAR

LOFAR is a new radio telescope being built in the Netherlands. It can detect cosmic particles by measuring radio pulses from air showers and by searching for radio pulses from particle cascades in the moon. The high density of radio antennas in the core and the excellent calibration will make LOFAR an unique tool to study the radio properties of single air showers and thus test and refine our theoretical understanding of the radio emission process in them. In addition LOFAR will be able to observe the moon with high sensitivity at low frequencies and search for particles interacting in the lunar regolith. This will give it unprecedented sensitivity to cosmic rays or neutrinos at energies around 10 22 eV . Triggering for both detection methods means detecting a short radio pulse and discriminating real events from radio interference. At LOFAR we will search for pulses in the digital data stream either from single antennas or from already beam-formed data and pick out real events from pulse form data. In addition we will have a small scintillator array to test and confirm the performance of the radio only trigger, and to provide additional measurements for the air shower reconstruction and analysis.