Origin and evolution of cosmic accelerators - the unique discovery potential of an UHE neutrino telescope: Astronomy Decadal Survey (2010-2020) Science White Paper

Abstract

One of the most tantalizing questions in astronomy and astrophysics, namely the origin and the evolution of the cosmic accelerators that produce the highest energy cosmic rays (UHECR), may be best addressed through the observation of ultra high energy (UHE) cosmogenic neutrinos. Neutrinos travel from their source undeflected by magnetic fields and unimpeded by interactions with the cosmic microwave background. At high energies, neutrinos could be detected in dense, radio frequency (RF) transparent media via the Askaryan effect. The abundant cold ice covering the geographic South Pole, with its exceptional RF clarity, has been host to several pioneering efforts to develop this approach, including RICE and ANITA. Building on the expertise gained in these efforts, and the infrastructure developed in the construction of the IceCube optical Cherenkov observatory, a low-cost array of radio frequency antenna stations could be deployed near the Pole to efficiently detect a significant number of UHE neutrinos with degree scale angular resolution within the next decade. Such an array, if installed in close proximity to IceCube, could allow cross-calibration on a small but invaluable subset of neutrino events detected by both the optical and radio methods. In addition to providing critical information in the identification of the source of UHECRs, such an observatory could also provide a unique probe of long baseline high energy neutrino interactions unattainable in any man-made neutrino beam.

7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to US Astronomy Decadal Survey (2010-2020)

References in corpus (6)

• New Limits on the Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Neutrino Flux from the ANITA Experiment
• Predictions for the Cosmogenic Neutrino Flux in Light of New Data from the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Measurement of the UHECR energy spectrum using data from the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Magnetowave Induced Plasma Wakefield Acceleration for Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays
• The Highest Energy Neutrinos
• UHE neutrino astronomy and neutrino oscillations

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Cosmogenic Neutrinos: parameter space and detectabilty from PeV to ZeV
• Effect of the Metallicity on the X-ray Emission from the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium
• The Search for the Sources of the Cosmic Rays One Century after their Discovery
• Recent Progress in Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics