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Register a new userObservation of Radar Echoes From High-Energy Particle Cascades
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We report the observation of radar echoes from the ionization trails of high-energy particle cascades. These data were taken at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where the full electron beam ($sim$10$^9$ e$^-$ at $sim$10 GeV/e$^-$) was directed into a plastic target to simulate an ultra high-energy neutrino interaction. This target was interrogated with radio waves, and coherent radio reflections from the cascades were detected, with properties consistent with theoretical expectations. This is the first definitive observation of radar echoes from high-energy particle cascades, which may lead to a viable neutrino detection technology for energies $gtrsim 10^{16}$ eV.
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We present a particle-level model for calculating the radio scatter of incident RF radiation from the plasma formed in the wake of a particle shower. We incorporate this model into a software module (RadioScatter), which calculates the collective scattered signal using the individual particle equations of motion, accounting for plasma effects, transmitter and receiver geometries, refraction at boundaries, and antenna gain patterns. We find appreciable collective scattering amplitudes with coherent phase for a range of geometries, with high geometric and volumetric acceptance. Details of the calculation are discussed, as well as the implementation of RadioScatter into GEANT4. A laboratory test of our model, currently scheduled at SLAC in 2018, with the goal of measuring the time-dependent characteristics of the reflecting plasma, is also described. Prospects for a future in-ice, high-energy neutrino detector, along with comparison to current detection strategies, are presented.
In recent works we discussed the feasibility of the radar detection technique as a new method to probe high-energy cosmic-neutrino induced plasmas in ice. Using the different properties of the induced ionization plasma, an energy threshold of several PeV was derived for the over-dense scattering of a radio wave off the plasma. Next to this energy threshold the radar return power was determined for the different constituents of the plasma. It followed that the return signal should be detectable at a distance of several hundreds of meters to a few kilometers, depending on the plasma constituents and considered geometry. In this article we describe a more detailed modeling of the scattering process by expanding our model to include the full shower geometry, as well as the reflection off the under-dense plasma region. We include skin-effects, as well as the angular dependence of the scattered signal. As a first application of this more detailed modeling approach, we provide the effective area and sensitivity for a simplified detector setup. It follows that, depending on the detailed plasma properties, the radar detection technique provides a very promising method for the detection of neutrino induced particle cascades at energies above several PeV. Nevertheless, to determine the feasibility of the method more detailed information about the plasma properties, especially its lifetime and the free charge collision rate, are needed.
Baikal-GVD is a neutrino telescope currently under construction in Lake Baikal. GVD is formed by multi-meganton subarrays (clusters). The design of Baikal-GVD allows one to search for astrophysical neutrinos already at early phases of the array construction. We present here preliminary results of a search for high-energy neutrinos with GVD in 2019-2020.
The Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observatories recently discovered gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral. A short gamma-ray burst (GRB) that followed the merger of this binary was also recorded by Fermi-GBM and INTEGRAL, indicating particle acceleration by the source. The precise location of the event was determined by optical detections of emission following the merger. We searched for high-energy neutrinos from the merger in the TeV - 100 PeV energy range using Baikal-GVD. No neutrinos directionally coincident with the source were detected within $pm$500 s around the merger time, as well as during a 14-day period after the GW detection. We derived 90% confidence level upper limits on the neutrino fluence from GW170817 during a $pm$500 s window centered on the GW trigger time, and a 14-day window following the GW signal under the assumption of an $E^{-2}$ neutrino energy spectrum.
The current methods to determine the primary energy of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are different when dealing with hadron or photon primaries. The current experiments combine two different techniques, an array of surface detectors and fluorescence telescopes. The latter allow an almost calorimetric measurement of the primary energy. Thus, hadron-initiated showers detected by both type of detectors are used to calibrate the energy estimator from the surface array (usually the interpolated signal at a certain distance from the shower core S(r0)) with the primary energy. On the other hand, this calibration is not feasible when searching for photon primaries since no high energy photon has been unambiguously detected so far. Therefore, pure Monte Carlo parametrizations are used instead. In this work, we present a new method to determine the primary energy of hadron-induced showers in a hybrid experiment based on a technique previously developed for photon primaries. It consists on a set of calibration curves that relate the surface energy estimator, S(r0), and the depth of maximum development of the shower, Xmax, obtained from the fluorescence telescopes. Then, the primary energy can be determined from pure surface information since S(r0) and the zenith angle of the incoming shower are only needed. Considering a mixed sample of ultra-high energy proton and iron primaries and taking into account the reconstruction uncertainties and shower to shower fluctuations, we demonstrate that the primary energy may be determined with a systematic uncertainty below 1% and resolution around 16% in the energy range from 10^{18.5} to 10^{19.6} eV. Several array geometries, the shape of the energy error distributions and the uncertainties due to the unknown composition of the primary flux have been analyzed as well.
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