Neutrino Array Radio Calibration

中微子阵列无线电校准

• 批准号: 0826747
• 负责人: Dave Besson
• 金额: $ 16万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-07-15 至 2011-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0826747&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Neutrino; Array; Radio; Calibration

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.

该提案寻求资金，将前无线电冰切伦科夫实验（RICE）任务重新聚焦于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试验台。 RICE 历来是使用冰内无线电发射器进行校准的；然而，这些发射机还存在其他缺点，因为其信号几何形状与地球大气层中超高能宇宙射线产生的中微子引起的空气簇射明显不同。这些广泛的空气簇射 (EAS) 目前可以通过 IceCube 中微子观测站 IceTop 探测器在南极表面的粒子通量以及到达 IceCube 下方 2 公里的穿透 μ 子通量进行观测。这样的风淋室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长，另一个是当粒子通量撞击表面时产生的冰内中微子，从而产生与冰内中微子预期相同的切伦科夫信号。建议将以前的 RICE 触发方案重新定向为“空中”和“冰内”EAS，利用 IceCube 和 IceTop 探测器组合提供的现有空气簇射探测功能。与下一代冰内数字无线电模块硬件的一致检测将允许完整跟踪从冰面上方数百米到冰面下方数百米的空气淋浴信号。这将建立恒定的校准光束，未来的冰内无线电探测设备可以在该光束上进一步开发，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簇射的虚假信号的影响。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，并将这项努力牢牢扎根于其教育使命中。