50 research outputs found
Role of Group and Phase Velocity in High-Energy Neutrino Observatories
Kuzmichev recently showed that use of phase velocity rather than group
velocity for Cherenkov light signals and pulses from calibration lasers in
high-energy neutrino telescopes leads to errors in track reconstruction and
distance measurement. We amplify on his remarks and show that errors for four
cases of interest to AMANDA, IceCube, and RICE (radio Cherenkov detector) are
negligibly small.Comment: To be published in Astroparticle Physics, 6 pages, uses elsart.st
Attenuation of acoustic waves in glacial ice and salt domes
Two classes of natural solid media (glacial ice and salt domes) are under
consideration as media in which to deploy instruments for detection of
neutrinos with energy >1e18 eV. Though insensitive to 1e11 to 1e16 eV neutrinos
for which observatories (e.g., AMANDA and IceCube) that utilize optical
Cherenkov radiation detectors are designed, radio and acoustic methods are
suited for searches for the very low fluxes of neutrinos with energies >1017
eV. This is because, due to the very long attenuation lengths of radio and
acoustic waves in ice and salt, detection modules can be spaced very far apart.
In this paper, I calculate the absorption and scattering coefficients as a
function of frequency and grain size for acoustic waves in glacial ice and salt
domes and show that experimental measurements on laboratory samples and in
glacial ice and salt domes are consistent with theory. For South Pole ice with
grain size 0.2 cm at -51 degrees C, scattering lengths are calculated to be
2000 km and 25 km at 10 kHz and 30 kHz, respectively, and the absorption length
is calculated to be 9 km at frequencies above 100 Hz. For NaCl (rock salt) with
grain size 0.75 cm, scattering lengths are calculated to be 120 km and 1.4 km
at 10 kHz and 30 kHz, and absorption lengths are calculated to be 30,000 km and
3300 km at 10 kHz and 30 kHz. Existing measurements are consistent with theory.
For ice, absorption is the limiting factor; for salt, scattering is the
limiting factor.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Journal of Geophysical Research -
Solid Eart
Ultra-Transparent Antarctic Ice as a Supernova Detector
We have simulated the response of a high energy neutrino telescope in deep
Antarctic ice to the stream of low energy neutrinos produced by a supernova.
The passage of a large flux of MeV-energy neutrinos during a period of seconds
will be detected as an excess of single counting rates in all individual
optical modules. We update here a previous estimate of the performance of such
an instrument taking into account the recent discovery of absorption lengths of
several hundred meters for near-UV photons in natural deep ice. The existing
AMANDA detector can, even by the most conservative estimates, act as a galactic
supernova watch.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex file, no figures. Postscript file also available from
http://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1995/madph-95-888.ps.Z or from
ftp://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1995/madph-95-888.ps.
New Physics Potential with a Neutrino Telescope
Active Galactic Nuclei are considered as sources of neutrinos, with neutrino
energies extending up to 10^{18} eV. It is expected that these highly energetic
cosmic neutrinos will be detected by the neutrino telescopes, presently under
construction. The detection process is very sensitive to the total muon
neutrino cross-section. We examine how the total cross section changes at high
energies, by the single production of excited fermions (excited muon and
muon-neutrino). For parameters (masses, couplings) of the excited fermions
allowed by the experimental constraints, we find that for energies of the
incoming muon-neutrino above 100 TeV the cross-section for single production of
(excited muon and muon-neutrino) supersedes the standard total cross-section.Comment: 12 pages and 2 figures; typset using revtex; postscript files for the
figures provide
Optical Properties of Deep Ice at the South Pole - Absorption
We discuss recent measurements of the wavelength-dependent absorption
coefficients in deep South Pole ice. The method uses transit time distributions
of pulses from a variable-frequency laser sent between emitters and receivers
embedded in the ice. At depths of 800 to 1000 m scattering is dominated by
residual air bubbles, whereas absorption occurs both in ice itself and in
insoluble impurities. The absorption coefficient increases approximately
exponentially with wavelength in the measured interval 410 to 610 nm. At the
shortest wavelength our value is about a factor 20 below previous values
obtained for laboratory ice and lake ice; with increasing wavelength the
discrepancy with previous measurements decreases. At around 415 to 500 nm the
experimental uncertainties are small enough for us to resolve an extrinsic
contribution to absorption in ice: submicron dust particles contribute by an
amount that increases with depth and corresponds well with the expected
increase seen near the Last Glacial Maximum in Vostok and Dome C ice cores. The
laser pulse method allows remote mapping of gross structure in dust
concentration as a function of depth in glacial ice.Comment: 26 pages, LaTex, Accepted for publication in Applied Optics. 9
figures, not included, available on request from [email protected]
UV and optical light transmission properties in deep ice at the South Pole
Both absorption and scattering of light at wavelengths 410 to 610 nanometers were measured in the South Pole ice at depths 0.8 to 1 kilometer with the laser calibration system of the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA). At the shortest wavelengths the absorption lengths exceeded 200 metersâan order of magnitude longer than has been reported for laboratory ice. The absorption shows a strong wavelength dependence while the scattering length is found to be independent of the wavelength, consistent with the hypothesis of a residual density of air bubbles in the ice. The observed linear decrease of the inverse scattering length with depth is compatible with an earlier measurement by the AMANDA collaboration (at âŒ515 nanometers)
The Oscillation Probability of GeV Solar Neutrinos of All Active Species
In this paper, I address the oscillation probability of O(GeV) neutrinos of
all active flavours produced inside the Sun and detected at the Earth. Flavours
other than electron-type neutrinos may be produced, for example, by the
annihilation of WIMPs which may be trapped inside the Sun. In the GeV energy
regime, matter effects are important both for the ``1-3'' system and the
``1-2'' system, and for different neutrino mass hierarchies. A numerical scan
of the multidimensional three-flavour parameter space is performed,
``inspired'' by the current experimental situation. One important result is
that, in the three-flavour oscillation case, P{alpha,beta} is different from
P{beta,alpha} for a significant portion of the parameter space, even if there
is no CP-violating phase in the MNS matrix. Furthermore, P{mu,mu} has a
significantly different behaviour from P{tau,tau}, which may affect
expectations for the number of events detected at large neutrino telescopes.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figure
The Case for a Low Extragalactic Gamma-ray Background
Measurements of the diffuse extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGRB) are
complicated by a strong Galactic foreground. Estimates of the EGRB flux and
spectrum, obtained by modeling the Galactic emission, have produced a variety
of (sometimes conflicting) results. The latest analysis of the EGRET data found
an isotropic flux I_x=1.45+-0.05 above 100 MeV, in units of 10^-5 s^-1 cm^-2
sr^-1. We analyze the EGRET data in search for robust constraints on the EGRB
flux, finding the gamma-ray sky strongly dominated by Galactic foreground even
at high latitudes, with no conclusive evidence for an additional isotropic
component. The gamma-ray intensity measured towards the Galactic poles is
similar to or lower than previous estimates of I_x. The high latitude profile
of the gamma-ray data is disk-like for 40<|b[deg]|<70, and even steeper for
|b|>70; overall it exhibits strong Galactic features and is well fit by a
simple Galactic model. Based on the |b|>40 data we find that I_x<0.5 at a 99%
confidence level, with evidence for a much lower flux. We show that
correlations with Galactic tracers, previously used to identify the Galactic
foreground and estimate I_x, are not satisfactory; the results depend on the
tracers used and on the part of the sky examined, because the Galactic emission
is not linear in the Galactic tracers and exhibits spectral variations across
the sky. The low EGRB flux favored by our analysis places stringent limits on
extragalactic scenarios involving gamma-ray emission, such as radiation from
blazars, intergalactic shocks and production of ultra-high energy cosmic rays
and neutrinos. We suggest methods by which future gamma-ray missions such as
GLAST and AGILE could indirectly identify the EGRB.Comment: Accepted for publication in JCAP. Increased sizes of polar regions
examined, and added discussion of spectral data. Results unchange