LUNASKA experiments using the Australia Telescope Compact Array to search for ultra-high energy neutrinos and develop technology for the lunar Cherenkov technique

We describe the design, performance, sensitivity and results of our recent experiments using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) for lunar Cherenkov observations with a very wide (600 MHz) bandwidth and nanosecond timing, including a limit on an isotropic neutrino flux. We also make a first estimate of the effects of small-scale surface roughness on the effective experimental aperture, finding that contrary to expectations, such roughness will act to increase the detectability of near-surface events over the neutrino energy-range at which our experiment is most sensitive (though distortions to the time-domain pulse profile may make identification more difficult). The aim of our "Lunar UHE Neutrino Astrophysics using the Square Kilometer Array" (LUNASKA) project is to develop the lunar Cherenkov technique of using terrestrial radio telescope arrays for ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic ray (CR) and neutrino detection, and in particular to prepare for using the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) and its path-finders such as the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) for lunar Cherenkov experiments.Comment: 27 pages, 18 figures, 4 tables

Observational Tests of the Standard Model: Status and Perspectives

Metagalaxy's horizon is 40-50 thousand Mpc, which makes it possible to explain the microwave background radiation as the optical radiation of stars in the Metagalaxy in a distance interval up to 40,000 Mpc. In this case, the redshift is produced in the process of wave propagation in space, though the mechanism producing it is still unknown. Is the Majority Right? For majority opinion to change on the correctness of the hot big bang cosmology, it is clear that one or more of the arguments given above [the redshift-distance relation, the microwave background radiation, the abundance of the light isotopes D, He, He, and 7 Li] must be seen to fail. To most cosmologists, this appears, at present, to be very unlikely. However, if a change does occur, it will probably come from one of three directions: a. A demonstration that the redshifts are not (all) Doppler shifts associated with the expansion of the universe. b. A demonstration that there is another plausible mechanism which co