ASCEND: Expanding the Multi-Messenger Impact of In-Ice Radio Experiments

Marco Muzio被授予美国国家科学基金会数学和物理科学提升博士后研究奖学金，在宾夕法尼亚州立大学进行研究和教育项目。Muzio将使用多信使天文学，结合中微子、伽马射线和粒子探测来研究最高能量事件。具体来说，Muzio将使用来自阿斯卡扬无线电阵列（ARA）的数据进行新的、更高灵敏度的研究，这些研究与大约10千兆电子伏特以上的高能（VHE）中微子有关。除了这项研究，Muzio还将与气候与多样性委员会（Climate and Diversity Committee）以及该校的其他机构合作，扩大未被充分代表的少数族裔在博士后和本科生阶段的参与。探测VHE中微子将解决超高能宇宙射线研究中的紧迫问题，包括它们的来源是如何分布的，它们的成分是什么，以及加速器是否在宇宙射线观测无法达到的长度尺度上产生大量的能量通量。重要的是，中微子将以一种与强子相互作用模型无关的方式解决这些问题，避开了困扰宇宙射线数据解释的粒子物理不确定性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Marco Muzio is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to conduct a program of research and education at the Pennsylvania State University. Muzio will use multi-messenger astronomy, combining neutrino, gamma-ray, and particle detection to study the highest energy events. Specifically, Muzio will use data from the Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) to perform new, higher sensitivity studies related to very high-energy (VHE) neutrinos above approximately 10 Petaelectronvolts. Along with the research, Muzio will work with the Climate and Diversity Committee and others at the university to broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities at both the postdoctoral and undergraduate levels. Detection of VHE neutrinos will address pressing questions in the study of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, including how their sources are distributed, what their composition is, and if accelerators produce a substantial flux at energies at length scales inaccessible through cosmic ray observations. Importantly, neutrinos will address these questions in a hadronic interaction model-independent way, sidestepping particle physics uncertainties that plague the interpretation of cosmic ray data.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.