A First Search for Cosmogenic Neutrinos with the ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array

The ARIANNA experiment seeks to observe the diffuse flux of neutrinos in the 10^8 - 10^10 GeV energy range using a grid of radio detectors at the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. The detector measures the coherent Cherenkov radiation produced at radio frequencies, from about 100 MHz to 1 GHz, by charged particle showers generated by neutrino interactions in the ice. The ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array (HRA) is being constructed as a prototype for the full array. During the 2013-14 austral summer, three HRA stations collected radio data which was wirelessly transmitted off site in nearly real-time. The performance of these stations is described and a simple analysis to search for neutrino signals is presented. The analysis employs a set of three cuts that reject background triggers while preserving 90% of simulated cosmogenic neutrino triggers. No neutrino candidates are found in the data and a model-independent 90% confidence level Neyman upper limit is placed on the all flavor neutrino+antineutrino flux in a sliding decade-wide energy bin. The limit reaches a minimum of 1.9x10^-23 GeV^-1 cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 in the 10^8.5 - 10^9.5 GeV energy bin. Simulations of the performance of the full detector are also described. The sensitivity of the full ARIANNA experiment is presented and compared with current neutrino flux models.Comment: 22 pages, 22 figures. Published in Astroparticle Physic

A first search for cosmogenic neutrinos with the ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array

The ARIANNA experiment seeks to observe the diffuse flux of neutrinos in the 108-1010 GeV energy range using a grid of radio detectors at the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. The detector measures the coherent Cherenkov radiation produced at radio frequencies, from about 100 MHz-1 GHz, by charged particle showers generated by neutrino interactions in the ice. The ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array (HRA) is being constructed as a prototype for the full array. During the 2013-14 austral summer, three HRA stations collected radio data which was wirelessly transmitted off site in nearly real-time. The performance of these stations is described and a simple analysis to search for neutrino signals is presented. The analysis employs a set of three cuts that reject background triggers while preserving 90% of simulated cosmogenic neutrino triggers. No neutrino candidates are found in the data and a model-independent 90% confidence level Neyman upper limit is placed on the all flavor ν+ν¯ flux in a sliding decade-wide energy bin. The limit reaches a minimum of 1.9×10-23GeV-1cm-2s-1sr-1 in the 108.5-109.5 GeV energy bin. Simulations of the performance of the full detector are also described. The sensitivity of the full ARIANNA experiment is presented and compared with current neutrino flux models

Livetime and sensitivity of the ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array

The ARIANNA collaboration completed the installation of the hexagonal radio array (HRA) in December 2014, serving as a pilot program for a planned high energy neutrino telescope located about 110 km south of McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf near the coast of Antarctica. The goal of ARIANNA is to measure both diffuse and point fluxes of astrophysical neutrinos at energies in excess of 1016 eV. Upgraded hardware has been installed during the 2014 deployment season and stations show a livetime of better than 90% between commissioning and austral sunset. Though designed to observe radio pulses from neutrino interactions originating within the ice below each detector, one station was modified to study the low-frequency environment and signals from above. We provide evidence that the HRA observed both continuous emission from the Galaxy and a transient solar burst. Preliminary work on modeling the (weak) Galactic signal confirm the absolute sensitivity of the HRA detector system

Performance of the ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array

Installation of the ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array (HRA) on the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica has been completed. This detector serves as a pilot program to the ARIANNA neutrino telescope, which aims to measure the diffuse flux of very high energy neutrinos by observing the radio pulse generated by neutrino-induced charged particle showers in the ice. All HRA stations ran reliably and took data during the entire 2014-2015 austral summer season. A new radio signal direction reconstruction procedure is described, and is observed to have a resolution better than a degree. The reconstruction is used in a preliminary search for potential neutrino candidate events in the data from one of the newly installed detector stations. Three cuts are used to separate radio backgrounds from neutrino signals. The cuts are found to filter out all data recorded by the station during the season while preserving 85.4% of simulated neutrino events that trigger the station. This efficiency is similar to that found in analyses of previous HRA data taking seasons