FORTE satellite constraints on ultra-high energy cosmic particle fluxes

The FORTE (Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events) satellite records bursts of electromagnetic waves arising from near the Earth's surface in the radio frequency (RF) range of 30 to 300 MHz with a dual polarization antenna. We investigate the possible RF signature of ultra-high energy cosmic-ray particles in the form of coherent Cherenkov radiation from cascades in ice. We calculate the sensitivity of the FORTE satellite to ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrino fluxes at different energies beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff. Some constraints on supersymmetry model parameters are also estimated due to the limits that FORTE sets on the UHE neutralino flux. The FORTE database consists of over 4 million recorded events to date, including in principle some events associated with UHE neutrinos. We search for candidate FORTE events in the period from September 1997 to December 1999. The candidate production mechanism is via coherent VHF radiation from a UHE neutrino shower in the Greenland ice sheet. We demonstrate a high efficiency for selection against lightning and anthropogenic backgrounds. A single candidate out of several thousand raw triggers survives all cuts, and we set limits on the corresponding particle fluxes assuming this event represents our background level.Comment: added a table, updated references and Figure 8, this version is submitted to Phys. Rev.

Recent status of the KamLAND experiment

The KamLAND experiment is a very long baseline reactor ̄ne oscillation experiment. This experiment has sensitivity to the oscillation parameters Δℳ2 > 10-5 eV2 and sin2θ > 0.2, using reactor ̄ne which come typically from 170km away. This sensitive region completely covers the currently most favored MSW-LMA solution for the solar neutrino deficit problem. After 5 years of detector construction, the data taking started successfully in Jan. 2002. The detector performance is sufficient to perform reactor ̄ne physics and we expect the first physics result will come out soon. In this paper, the KamLAND detector, its expected sensitivities, history, and recent progress since the time of the conference, are briefly described

First results from KamLAND: Evidence for reactor anti-neutrino disappearance

No abstract prepared