Data Collection and Analysis from the ARIANNA Sub-array Stations

ARIANNA 子阵列站的数据收集和分析

• 批准号: 1413661
• 负责人: Steven Barwick
• 金额: $ 32.5万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-01 至 2017-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1413661&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Data; Collection; Analysis; ARIANNA; Sub

The quest to detect and measure ultra-high-energy neutrinos (100 petaelectronvolts, PeV) is at the forefront of particle astrophysics and has been going on for many years. Detectors that exploit photomultipliers, like the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at South Pole, have made significant progress detecting neutrinos up to 1-2 PeV, but to instrument realistic larger target mass volumes, one needs to turn to techniques like the radio detection of high-energy neutrinos in media where radio waves can easily propagate ? like an ice sheet or shelf. The neutrinos being searched for can bring essential information about their origins, where and how they were made, and thereby shed light on the origins of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. The nature of cosmic accelerators is one of the key questions of modern high-energy astrophysics.Antarctic Ross Ice-Shelf ANtenna Neutrino Array (ARIANNA) is one of the proposed detectors for ultra-high energy astrophysical neutrinos, which is designed to measure coherent radio Cherenkov emissions from particle showers produced by neutrino interactions within ice. ARIANNA can be built on the Ross Ice Shelf just off the coast of Antarctica (~100-km south from McMurdo Station), eventually covering about 1000 square-km in surface area. There, the ice-water interface below the ~600-m thick shelf reflects radio waves, giving ARIANNA sensitivity to downward going neutrinos and improving its sensitivity to horizontally incident neutrinos.The primary goal of this award is to complete the deployment of the remaining four stations for the pilot 7-station Hexagonal Radio Array (HRA, approximately 2-km distance between sides) that can serve as a "building block" for a much larger ARIANNA project, ultimately consisting of ~960 stations. Upon completing the HRA deployment, the focus will be on analysis tasks: carefully examining the data collected by the HRA stations, characterizing the sources and properties of non-thermal contributions, and monitoring the robustness of the HRA stations in its year-round operation. These stations operate autonomously, using solar power for about 7 months and going to sleep for austral winter months. Anticipated broader impacts from this project include training graduate students, furthering international scientific collaboration and cooperation in Antarctica, and providing data that will be of significant importance and use by the neutrino astrophysics community.

探测和测量超高能中微子(100PetaElectronVolts，PeV)的探索是粒子天体物理学的前沿，已经持续了很多年。利用光电倍增管的探测器，如南极的冰立方中微子天文台，在探测高达1-2PeV的中微子方面取得了重大进展，但为了测量真实的更大目标质量体积，人们需要转向诸如无线电探测无线电波可以容易传播的介质中的高能中微子这样的技术？就像冰盖或冰架。正在搜索的中微子可以带来关于它们的起源、在哪里和如何形成的基本信息，从而揭示超高能宇宙射线的起源。宇宙加速器的性质是现代高能天体物理的关键问题之一。南极罗斯冰架天线中微子阵列(Arianna)是建议用于超高能天体物理中微子的探测器之一，旨在测量冰内中微子相互作用产生的粒子簇射的相干射电切伦科夫辐射。阿里安娜可以建在南极洲海岸外的罗斯冰架上(麦克默多站以南约100公里)，最终覆盖约1000平方公里的表面面积。在那里，约600米厚的陆架下方的冰-水界面反射无线电波，使阿里安娜对下行中微子具有敏感性，并提高其对水平入射中微子的敏感性。该奖项的主要目标是完成试点7站六角形无线电阵列(HRA，两侧距离约2公里)剩余四个站的部署，该阵列可以作为一个更大的阿里安娜项目的“积木”，最终由~960个站组成。在完成HRA部署后，重点将放在分析任务上：仔细检查HRA站收集的数据，确定非热力贡献的来源和性质，并监测HRA站在全年运行中的稳健性。这些空间站自主运行，使用太阳能约7个月，并在南半球的冬季休眠几个月。预计该项目将产生更广泛的影响，包括培训研究生，促进南极洲的国际科学协作和合作，并提供对中微子天体物理学界具有重要意义和使用的数据。