Tackling the mystery of cosmic rays by searching for cosmogenic neutrinos - transforming the ARIANNA pilot program into a discovery instrument

通过寻找宇宙中微子解开宇宙射线之谜——将 ARIANNA 试点计划转变为发现仪器

• 批准号: 376715320
• 负责人: Dr. Christian Glaser
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Department of Physics and Astronomy
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Fellowships
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-31 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/376715320?language=en
• 关键词: Tackling; mystery; cosmic; rays; searching

Cosmic rays are the most energetic particles observed in the universe. With energies of more than 10^20 eV (~16 Joules) concentrated in a single particle, their energy is seven orders of magnitude larger than the energy achievable in the largest particle accelerators on Earth such as the large hadron collider (LHC) at CERN. The study of these ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) gives access to the most violent phenomena in the universe such as active galactic nuclei or gamma ray bursts which are probable sources of UHECRs.A key to the sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is the measurement of cosmogenic neutrinos that are created by the interactions of cosmic rays with matter surrounding the source or with CMB photons. Neutrinos traverse the universe unimpeded and typically point back to the cosmic-ray source with sub degree accuracy, and their measurement will allow for a stringent discrimination between different astrophysical scenarios which are currently fiercely debated.The relevant neutrino energy range is 10^16.5 – 10^20.5 eV where the amount of neutrinos is so rare that current experiments (e.g. IceCube) are too small to obtain sufficient statistics in reasonable time. Sufficient sensitivity to these high-energy neutrinos can be obtained with the proposed ARIANNA high energy neutrino detector which instruments 0.5 Teratons of ice in Antarctica at low costs by measuring the radio emission created by a particle shower in ice via the Askaryan effect.The goal of this project is to transform the ARIANNA pilot program into a discovery instrument with the capability to reveal the sources of extragalactic cosmic rays for the first time. I will bring my experience with radio-based cosmic ray detection, whose signals are remarkably similar to those generated by neutrinos, to improve the precision and maturity of the reconstructed energy and angular direction of neutrino events. In addition, I will explore different methods to identify the neutrino flavor including the usage of advanced machine learning techniques and the construction of a tau-neutrino sensitive antenna array above the ice. All methods will be tested on data from the ARIANNA pilot program, which is already completed and instruments 2.7 Gigatons of ice. In the future, these methods can be applied to the full-size ARIANNA detector to efficiently search for cosmogenic neutrinos.

宇宙射线是宇宙中观测到的能量最高的粒子。由于能量超过10^20 eV（约16焦耳）集中在单个粒子中，它们的能量比地球上最大的粒子加速器（如欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机（LHC））所能达到的能量大7个数量级。超高能宇宙线（UHECR）是宇宙中最剧烈的现象，如活动星系核、伽玛射线暴等，是超高能宇宙线的重要来源，而宇宙线与周围物质或宇宙微波背景光子相互作用产生的宇宙成因中微子是研究超高能宇宙线来源的关键。中微子不受阻碍地穿越宇宙，通常以亚度的精度指向宇宙射线源，它们的测量将允许严格区分目前激烈争论的不同天体物理场景。相关的中微子能量范围为10^16.5 - 10^20.5 eV，其中中微子的数量非常稀少，（例如IceCube）太小，无法在合理的时间内获得足够的统计数据。对这些高敏感性-利用ARIANNA高能中微子探测器，通过测量冰中粒子簇射通过Askaryan效应产生的无线电辐射，可以以较低的成本探测南极洲0.5万亿吨的冰，从而获得高能中微子。该项目的目标是将ARIANNA试验计划转变为具有揭示河外宇宙射线源能力的发现仪器第一次我将带来我在基于无线电的宇宙射线探测方面的经验，其信号与中微子产生的信号非常相似，以提高中微子事件重建能量和角方向的精度和成熟度。此外，我将探索不同的方法来识别中微子的味道，包括使用先进的机器学习技术和在冰上方建造一个τ中微子敏感的天线阵列。所有方法都将在ARIANNA试点项目的数据上进行测试，该项目已经完成，并测量了2.7千兆吨的冰。在未来，这些方法可以应用于全尺寸的ARIANNA探测器，以有效地搜索宇宙成因中微子。

项目成果

Probing the angular and polarization reconstruction of the ARIANNA detector at the South Pole

探索南极 ARIANNA 探测器的角度和偏振重建

• DOI: 10.1088/1748-0221/15/09/p09039
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Journal of Instrumentation
• 影响因子: 1.3
• 作者: ARIANNA collaboration (…;C. Glaser)
• 通讯作者: C. Glaser)

Signatures of secondary leptons in radio-neutrino detectors in ice

冰中放射性中微子探测器中次级轻子的特征

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.102.083011
• 期刊: Physical Review D
• 影响因子: 5
• 作者: D. García-Fernández;C. Glaser;A. Nelles
• 通讯作者: A. Nelles

Neutrino vertex reconstruction with in-ice radio detectors using surface reflections and implications for the neutrino energy resolution

利用表面反射利用冰内无线电探测器重建中微子顶点以及对中微子能量分辨率的影响

• DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2019/11/030
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
• 影响因子: 6.4
• 作者: ARIANNA collaboration (…;C. Glaser)
• 通讯作者: C. Glaser)

Targeting ultra-high energy neutrinos with the ARIANNA experiment

通过 ARIANNA 实验瞄准超高能中微子

• DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2019.06.016
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Advances in Space Research
• 影响因子: 2.6
• 作者: ARIANNA collaboration (…;C. Glaser)
• 通讯作者: C. Glaser)

NuRadioMC: simulating the radio emission of neutrinos from interaction to detector

• DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-7612-8
• 发表时间: 2019-06
• 期刊: The European Physical Journal C
• 作者: C. Glaser;Daniel Garc'ia-Fern'andez;A. Nelles;J. Alvarez-Muñiz;S. Barwick;D. Besson;B. Clark;A. Connolly;C. Deaconu;Krijn de Vries;J. Hanson;B. Hokanson-Fasig;R. Lahmann;U. Latif;S. Kleinfelder;C. Persichilli;Yue Pan;Carl Pfender;I. Plaisier;D. Seckel;J. Torres;S. Toscano;N. Eijndhoven;A. Vieregg;C. Welling;T. Winchen;S. Wissel