Instrumentation seminar

ARIANNA: Radio detection of neutrinos on the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica

by Anna Nelles, UC Irvine

Europe/Stockholm
FA31

FA31

Description
Detecting cosmogenic neutrinos (10^16 eV and above) will require detectors that are even larger than those in operation today. The ARIANNA project explores the feasibility of installing antennas on the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica to detect the radio emission of neutrino induced showers in the ice. ARIANNA combines the advantage of the long attenuation length of the radio signal in ice with a low-cost instrumentation of a large volume to obtain a high sensitivity for neutrinos. In 2014 a hexagonal array has been completed and more than a year of experience in operation has been gathered. After covering some theoretical aspects of the radio emission of particle showers, I will focus on recent experimental efforts in the radio detection of neutrinos, with a special emphasis on ARIANNA. I will also cover the link to observations of cosmic rays through the radio emission of air showers and how this background has to be considered for neutrinos detectors.