Gamma-ray and Cosmic Ray Astrophysics from 10 TeV to 1 EeV with the large-area (>10 km²) air-shower Detector SCORE

We propose to explore the so-far poorly measured cosmic ray and gamma-ray sky (accelerator sky) in the energy range from 10 TeV to 1 EeV. New physics questions might be addressed in this last remaining observation window of gamma-ray astronomy. The very high beam-energies provided by Cosmic accelerators and the air-shower detection technique naturally imply an entanglement between fundamental questions of astroparticle physics and particle physics. The new large-area (10 km$^2$) wide-angle (1 sr) air Cherenkov detector SCORE (Study for a Cosmic ORigin Explorer) is based on non-imaging Cherenkov light-front sampling with sensitive large-area detector modules of the order of 1 m$^2$. The lateral photon density and arrival-time distribution will be sampled up to large distances from the shower core. The physics motivations, the detector concept and first simulation results will be presented.