Neutrino Array Radio Calibration

该提案寻求资金，以重新调整前无线电冰切伦科夫实验（RICE）使命到中微子阵列辐射校准平台，这将作为未来开发最终的大规模中微子无线电探测阵列的测试平台。历史上，RICE一直使用冰内无线电发射机进行校准;然而，这些发射机具有与地球大气中的超高能宇宙射线产生的中微子诱导的空气簇射明显不同的信号几何形状的额外缺点。这些广泛的空气簇射（EAS）目前可以通过冰立方中微子天文台IceTop探测器在南极表面的粒子通量以及到达冰立方2公里以下的穿透μ子通量来观测。这样的空气簇射也会产生两个无线电波信号？一个是在空气中的长波，这是由于EAS带电粒子通量经历地磁分离，另一个是在冰中产生的，当粒子通量撞击表面时，产生了与冰中中微子预期相同的切伦科夫信号。有人建议重新定向前水稻触发计划的“在空气中”和“在冰”EAS，利用现有的空气簇射检测能力提供的组合的IceCube和IceTop探测器。与下一代冰内数字无线电模块硬件的重合检测将允许从冰面上几百米到几百米以下的空气簇射信号的完整跟踪。这将建立恒定的校准波束，未来的冰中无线电探测设备可以进一步开发，并且必须量化拟议的表面中微子探测阵列，没有上下歧视，使它们容易受到来自空气淋浴的假信号的影响。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，并在其教育使命中坚定地支持这项努力。

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.