18 research outputs found
The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO): a white paper
The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) long-duration balloon experiment is designed to have world-leading sensitivity to ultrahigh-energy neutrinos at energies above 1 EeV. Probing this energy region is essential for understanding the extreme-energy universe at all distance scales. PUEO leverages experience from and supersedes the successful Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) program, with an improved design that drastically improves sensitivity by more than an order of magnitude at energies below 30 EeV. PUEO will either make the first significant detection of or set the best limits on ultrahigh-energy neutrino fluxes
Discovering the highest energy neutrinos with the Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO)
The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) is a NASA Long-Duration Balloon Mission that has been selected for concept development. PUEO has unprecedented sensitivity to ultra-high energy neutrinos above 1018 eV. PUEO will be sensitive to both Askaryan emission from neutrino-induced cascades in Antarctic ice and geomagnetic emission from upward-going air showers that are a result of tau neutrino interactions. PUEO is also especially well-suited for point source and transient searches. Compared to its predecessor ANITA, PUEO achieves better than an order-of-magnitude improvement in sensitivity and lowers the energy threshold for detection, by implementing a coherent phased array trigger, adding more channels, optimizing the detection bandwidth, and implementing real-time filtering. Here we discuss the science reach and plans for PUEO, leading up to a 2024 launch
The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO): A White Paper
The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) long-duration balloon
experiment is designed to have world-leading sensitivity to ultrahigh-energy
neutrinos at energies above 1 EeV. Probing this energy region is essential for
understanding the extreme-energy universe at all distance scales. PUEO
leverages experience from and supersedes the successful Antarctic Impulsive
Transient Antenna (ANITA) program, with an improved design that drastically
improves sensitivity by more than an order of magnitude at energies below 30
EeV. PUEO will either make the first significant detection of or set the best
limits on ultrahigh-energy neutrino fluxes.Comment: 37 pages, 17 figures. Minor updates, version submitted to JINS
In situ, broadband measurement of the radio frequency attenuation length at Summit Station, Greenland
Over the last 25 years, radiowave detection of neutrino-generated signals,
using cold polar ice as the neutrino target, has emerged as perhaps the most
promising technique for detection of extragalactic ultra-high energy neutrinos
(corresponding to neutrino energies in excess of 0.01 Joules, or
electron volts). During the summer of 2021 and in tandem with the initial
deployment of the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G), we conducted
radioglaciological measurements at Summit Station, Greenland to refine our
understanding of the ice target. We report the result of one such measurement,
the radio-frequency electric field attenuation length . We find an
approximately linear dependence of on frequency with the best fit of
the average field attenuation for the upper 1500 m of ice: MHz m for
frequencies MHz.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, Accepted to Journal of Glaciolog
Design and Sensitivity of the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G)
This article presents the design of the Radio Neutrino Observatory Greenland
(RNO-G) and discusses its scientific prospects. Using an array of radio
sensors, RNO-G seeks to measure neutrinos above 10 PeV by exploiting the
Askaryan effect in neutrino-induced cascades in ice. We discuss the
experimental considerations that drive the design of RNO-G, present first
measurements of the hardware that is to be deployed and discuss the projected
sensitivity of the instrument. RNO-G will be the first production-scale radio
detector for in-ice neutrino signals.Comment: 51 pages, 27 figures, prepared for JINS
Precision measurement of the index of refraction of deep glacial ice at radio frequencies at Summit Station, Greenland
Glacial ice is used as a target material for the detection of ultra-high
energy neutrinos, by measuring the radio signals that are emitted when those
neutrinos interact in the ice. Thanks to the large attenuation length at radio
frequencies, these signals can be detected over distances of several
kilometers. One experiment taking advantage of this is the Radio Neutrino
Observatory Greenland (RNO-G), currently under construction at Summit Station,
near the apex of the Greenland ice sheet. These experiments require a thorough
understanding of the dielectric properties of ice at radio frequencies. Towards
this goal, calibration campaigns have been undertaken at Summit, during which
we recorded radio reflections off internal layers in the ice sheet. Using data
from the nearby GISP2 and GRIP ice cores, we show that these reflectors can be
associated with features in the ice conductivity profiles; we use this
connection to determine the index of refraction of the bulk ice as n=1.778 +/-
0.006
Design and sensitivity of the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G)
This article presents the design of the Radio Neutrino Observatory Greenland (RNO-G) and discusses its scientific prospects. Using an array of radio sensors, RNO-G seeks to measure neutrinos above 10 PeV by exploiting the Askaryan effect in neutrino-induced cascades in ice. We discuss the experimental considerations that drive the design of RNO-G, present first measurements of the hardware that is to be deployed and discuss the projected sensitivity of the instrument. RNO-G will be the first production-scale radio detector for in-ice neutrino signals
Design and Sensitivity of the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G)
This article presents the design of the Radio Neutrino Observatory Greenland (RNO-G) and discusses its scientific prospects. Using an array of radio sensors, RNO-G seeks to measure neutrinos above 10 PeV by exploiting the Askaryan effect in neutrino-induced cascades in ice. We discuss the experimental considerations that drive the design of RNO-G, present first measurements of the hardware that is to be deployed and discuss the projected sensitivity of the instrument. RNO-G will be the first production-scale radio detector for in-ice neutrino signals
Recommended from our members
Triboelectric backgrounds to radio-based polar ultra-high energy neutrino (UHEN) experiments
In the hopes of observing the highest-energy neutrinos (E>1 EeV) populating the Universe, both past (RICE, AURA, ANITA) and current (RNO-G, ARIANNA, ARA and TAROGE-M) polar-sited experiments exploit the impulsive radio emission produced by neutrino interactions. In such experiments, rare single event candidates must be unambiguously identified above backgrounds. Background rejection strategies to date primarily target thermal noise fluctuations and also impulsive radio-frequency signals of anthropogenic origin. In this paper, we consider the possibility that âfakeâ neutrino signals may also be generated naturally via the âtriboelectric effect.â This broadly describes any process in which force applied at a boundary layer results in displacement of surface charge, leading to the production of an electrostatic potential difference ÎV. Wind blowing over granular surfaces such as snow can induce such a potential difference, with subsequent coronal discharge. Discharges over timescales as short as nanoseconds can then lead to radio-frequency emissions at characteristic MHzâGHz frequencies. Using data from various past (RICE, AURA, SATRA, ANITA) and current (RNO-G, ARIANNA and ARA) neutrino experiments, we find evidence for such backgrounds, which are generally characterized by: (a) a threshold wind velocity which likely depends on the experimental trigger criteria and layout; for the experiments considered herein, this value is typically O(10 m/s), (b) frequency spectra generally shifted to the low-end of the frequency regime to which current radio experiments are typically sensitive (100â200 MHz), (c) for the strongest background signals, an apparent preference for discharges from above-surface structures, although the presence of more isotropic, lower amplitude triboelectric discharges cannot be excluded
Reconstructing the neutrino energy for in-ice radio detectors
Since summer 2021, the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G) is searching for astrophysical neutrinos at energies > 10 PeV by detecting the radio emission from particle showers in the ice around Summit Station, Greenland. We present an extensive simulation study that shows how RNO-G will be able to measure the energy of such particle cascades, which will in turn be used to estimate the energy of the incoming neutrino that caused them. The location of the neutrino interaction is determined using the differences in arrival times between channels and the electric field of the radio signal is reconstructed using a novel approach based on Information Field Theory. Based on these properties, the shower energy can be estimated. We show that this method can achieve an uncertainty of 13% on the logarithm of the shower energy after modest quality cuts and estimate how this can constrain the energy of the neutrino. The method presented in this paper is applicable to all similar radio neutrino detectors, such as the proposed radio array of IceCube-Gen2