Neutrino Array Radio Calibration

该提案寻求资金，将以前的无线电冰切伦科夫实验（RICE）任务重新定位为中微子阵列射频校准平台，该平台将作为未来开发最终大规模中微子无线电探测阵列的测试平台。RICE历来使用冰内无线电发射机进行校准；然而，这些发射机的信号几何结构与地球大气中超高能量宇宙射线产生的中微子引起的空气阵雨明显不同，因此存在额外的缺点。这些广泛的空气阵雨（EAS）目前既可以通过冰立方中微子天文台的冰顶探测器在南极表面的粒子通量观测到，也可以通过穿透到冰立方2公里以下的μ子通量观测到。这种空气阵雨也会产生两种无线电波信号。一个是由于EAS带电粒子通量经历地磁分离而在空气中产生的长波，另一个是当粒子通量撞击表面时在冰内产生的，导致切伦科夫信号与冰内中微子的切伦科夫信号相同。建议将以前的RICE触发方案重新定位为“空气中”和“冰中”EAS，利用冰立方和冰顶探测器组合提供的现有空气淋探测能力。与下一代冰内数字无线电模块硬件的同步检测将允许从冰面上方数百米到冰面下方数百米的空气阵雨信号的完整跟踪。这将建立一个恒定的校准波束，未来的冰内无线电探测设备可以在此基础上进一步发展，并且必须对拟议的表面中微子探测阵列进行量化，没有上下区分，使它们容易受到来自空气阵雨的假信号的影响。对学生的持续依赖为这项拟议的研究提供了更广泛的影响，并坚定地将这一努力作为其教育使命的基础。

This proposal seeks funding to refocus the former Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment (RICE) mission into a Neutrino Array Radiofrequency Calibration platform, which will serve as a testbed for future development of an eventual large-scale neutrino radio-detection array. RICE has historically been calibrated using in-ice radio transmitters; however, these transmitters suffer additional drawbacks of having signal geometry distinctly different from the neutrino-induced air showers produced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere. These extensive air showers (EAS) currently observable both via their particle flux at the South Pole surface with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory IceTop detectors, and also the flux of penetrating muons reaching IceCube 2-km below. Such air showers will also produce two radio wave signals ? one at long-wavelengths in-air due to the EAS charged particle flux undergoing geomagnetic separation, and the other in-ice produced when that particle flux impacts the surface, resulting in a Cherenkov signal identical to that expected for in-ice neutrinos. It is proposed to redirect the former RICE trigger scheme for both 'in-air' and 'in-ice' EAS, taking advantage of the existing air-shower detection capabilities offered by the combination of the IceCube and IceTop detectors. Coincident detection with the next-generation in-ice digital radio module hardware will allow complete tracking of air shower signals from several hundred meters above the ice surface to hundreds of meters below. This would establish the constant calibration beam upon which future in-ice radio detection devices can be further developed, and which must be quantified for proposed surface neutrino-detection arrays with no up-down discrimination, leaving them susceptible to fake signals from air showers. Continued reliance on students provides a broader impact to this proposed research and firmly grounds this effort in its educational mission.