Development of a Sub-glacial Radio Telescope for the Detection of GZK Neutrinos

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Thomas Meures

   Pages 1-9

3. Theory

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11

      PDF

   2. The GZK Neutrino Flux

      • Thomas Meures

      Pages 13-23

   3. The Askaryan Effect in Dense Media

      • Thomas Meures

      Pages 25-34

4. Detector Hardware and Calibration Efforts

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 35-35

      PDF

   2. The Askaryan Radio Array (ARA)

      • Thomas Meures

      Pages 37-57

   3. The Calibration of the Ice Ray Sampler (IRS2) Chip

      • Thomas Meures

      Pages 59-79

   4. The Calibration of the ARA Station Geometry

      • Thomas Meures

      Pages 81-92

5. Data Analysis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 93-93

      PDF

   2. Simulations

      • Thomas Meures

      Pages 95-100

   3. Algorithms for the ARA Data Analysis

      • Thomas Meures

      Pages 101-124

   4. Signal Discrimination in the ARA02-ARA03 Data

      • Thomas Meures

      Pages 125-138

   5. Data Analysis Results

      • Thomas Meures

      Pages 139-148

   6. Summary and Outlook

      • Thomas Meures

      Pages 149-154

6. Back Matter

   Pages 155-159

   PDF

The goal of the project presented in this book is to detect neutrinos created by resonant interactions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays on the CMB photon field filling the Universe. In this pioneering first analysis, the author puts forward much of the analysis framework, including calibrations of the electronic hardware and antenna geometry, as well as the development of algorithms for event reconstruction and data reduction. While only two of the 37 stations planned for the Askaryan Radio Array were used in this assessment of 10 months of data, the analysis was able to exclude neutrino fluxes above 10 PeV with a limit not far from the best current limit set by the IceCube detector, a result which establishes the radio detection technique as the path forward to achieving the massive volumes needed to detect these ultrahigh energy neutrinos.

• Askaryan Radio Array
• Askaryan emission
• Digitizer calibration
• GZK neutrinos
• Radio detection of neutrinos
• Radio vertex reconstruction

• Université Libre de Bruxelles - IIHE, Brussels, Belgium

  Thomas Meures

Thomas Meures earned his Diploma in physics at the RWTH-Aachen University in 2010 with a thesis about the reciprocity calibration of acoustic hydrophones in water and ice, written under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Christopher Wiebusch. For his PhD studies he moved from acoustic research to radio neutrino detection at the Université libre de Bruxelles with Prof. Dr. Kael Hanson. Currently he is working on new developments of electronics for astroparticle physics experiments at the University of Wisconsin.

Policies and ethics