학술논문
The Radar Echo Telescope for Cosmic Rays: Pathfinder Experiment for a Next-Generation Neutrino Observatory
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
Prohira, S.; de Vries, K. D.; Allison, P.; Beatty, J.; Besson, D.; Connolly, A.; Dasgupta, P.; Deaconu, C.; De Kockere, S.; Frikken, D.; Hast, C.; Santiago, E. Huesca; Kuo, C. -Y.; Latif, U. A.; Lukic, V.; Meures, T.; Mulrey, K.; Nam, J.; Nozdrina, A.; Oberla, E.; Ralston, J. P.; Sbrocco, C.; Stanley, R. S.; Torres, J.; Toscano, S.; Broeck, D. Van den; van Eijndhoven, N.; Wissel, S.
Source
Subject
Language
Abstract
The Radar Echo Telescope for Cosmic Rays (RET-CR) is a recently initiated experiment designed to detect the englacial cascade of a cosmic-ray initiated air shower via in-ice radar, toward the goal of a full-scale, next-generation experiment to detect ultra high energy neutrinos in polar ice. For cosmic rays with a primary energy greater than 10 PeV, roughly 10% of an air-shower's energy reaches the surface of a high elevation ice-sheet ($\gtrsim$2 km) concentrated into a radius of roughly 10 cm. This penetrating shower core creates an in-ice cascade many orders of magnitude more dense than the preceding in-air cascade. This dense cascade can be detected via the radar echo technique, where transmitted radio is reflected from the ionization deposit left in the wake of the cascade. RET-CR will test the radar echo method in nature, with the in-ice cascade of a cosmic-ray initiated air-shower serving as a test beam. We present the projected event rate and sensitivity based upon a three part simulation using CORSIKA, GEANT4, and RadioScatter. RET-CR expects $\sim$1 radar echo event per day.