Improving Signal Gain for Radio Neutrino Receivers

• Main Author: Crawford, Alexandra
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@CalPoly 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bkendowments/47; https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/context/bkendowments/article/1037/viewcontent/BK_Crawford_Final_Report_Winter_16.pdf; https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/context/bkendowments/article/1037/filename/0/type/additional/viewcontent/BK_Crawford_Proposal_Winter_2016.pdf

The chargeless, light elementary particles known as neutrinos can be used as probes of extremely energetic and explosive astrophysical objects such as supernovae and quasars. Since neutrinos are extremely rare and difficult to detect, searches for them require large detector volumes to increase the chances of detecting a signal at any one time. By utilizing the transparency of ice to radio waves, the ANtarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) and ExaVolt Antenna(EVA) experiments are designed to monitor over one million cubic kilometers of Antarctic ice at a time, allowing the probability of finding one to ten neutrinos perflight. An increase in detector sensitivity by adding a dielectric lens to the ANITA gain horn antenna aperture [1] and by developing a large reflector antenna within a super-pressure balloon (EVA) is theorized to improve the likelihood of neutrino detection. This paper documents the effects of a dielectric lens on ANITA’s signal amplification chain and the characteristics of signal transmission through an EVA prototype antenna.