A first search for cosmogenic neutrinos with the ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array

• Main Authors: Barwick, SW, Berg, EC, Besson, DZ, Binder, G, Binns, WR, Boersma, DJ, Bose, RG, Braun, DL, Buckley, JH, Bugaev, V, Buitink, S, Dookayka, K, Dowkontt, PF, Duffin, T, Euler, S, Gerhardt, L, Gustafsson, L, Hallgren, A, Hanson, JC, Israel, MH, Kiryluk, J, Klein, SR, Kleinfelder, S, Niederhausen, H, Olevitch, MA, Persichelli, C, Ratzlaff, K, Rauch, BF, Reed, C, Roumi, M, Samanta, A, Simburger, GE, Stezelberger, T, Tatar, J, Uggerhoj, UI, Walker, J, Yodh, G, Young, R
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2015
• Subjects: Radio; Antarctica; Neutrino; Cosmogenic; GZK; High energy; astro-ph.HE; astro-ph.IM; Nuclear & Particles Physics; Astronomical and Space Sciences; Atomic; Molecular; Nuclear; Particle and Plasma Physics; Austral; Ross Ice Shelf; Antarc*; Ice Shelf
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9vv3g5kx

The ARIANNA experiment seeks to observe the diffuse flux of neutrinos in the 108-1010 GeV energy range using a grid of radio detectors at the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. The detector measures the coherent Cherenkov radiation produced at radio frequencies, from about 100 MHz-1 GHz, by charged particle showers generated by neutrino interactions in the ice. The ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array (HRA) is being constructed as a prototype for the full array. During the 2013-14 austral summer, three HRA stations collected radio data which was wirelessly transmitted off site in nearly real-time. The performance of these stations is described and a simple analysis to search for neutrino signals is presented. The analysis employs a set of three cuts that reject background triggers while preserving 90% of simulated cosmogenic neutrino triggers. No neutrino candidates are found in the data and a model-independent 90% confidence level Neyman upper limit is placed on the all flavor ν+ν¯ flux in a sliding decade-wide energy bin. The limit reaches a minimum of 1.9×10-23GeV-1cm-2s-1sr-1 in the 108.5-109.5 GeV energy bin. Simulations of the performance of the full detector are also described. The sensitivity of the full ARIANNA experiment is presented and compared with current neutrino flux models.