Can transition radiation explain the ANITA event 3985267?

Abstract

We investigate whether transition radiation from a particle shower crossing the interface between Earth and air and induced by an Earth-skimming neutrino can explain the upward event announced recently by the ANITA Collaboration. While the properties of the observed signal can in principle be explained with transition radiation, the flux necessary for a successful explanation is in tension with the current best limits from the Pierre Auger Observatory, the IceCube neutrino detector and the ANITA balloon. We also show that in this scenario, the direction of the incoming neutrino is determined precisely to within a few degrees, from the polarization properties of the observed events and thanks to the Earth opacity to ultra high energy neutrinos.

8 pages, 4 figures, version accepted to PRD

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• Observation of an Unusual Upward-going Cosmic-ray-like Event in the Third Flight of ANITA
• White Paper on New Opportunities at the Next-Generation Neutrino Experiments (Part 1: BSM Neutrino Physics and Dark Matter)
• A Sterile Neutrino Origin for the Upward Directed Cosmic Ray Showers Detected by ANITA
• $(g-2{)}_{\mu ,e}$ and the ANITA anomalous events in a three-loop neutrino mass model
• R-parity Violating Supersymmetric Explanation of the Anomalous Events at ANITA
• Sterile neutrinos as a possible explanation for the upward air shower events at ANITA
• Coherent transition radiation from the geomagnetically-induced current in cosmic-ray air showers: Implications for the anomalous events observed by ANITA
• A search for IceCube events in the direction of ANITA neutrino candidates
• Superheavy Dark Matter and ANITA's Anomalous Events
• The ANITA Anomalous Events and Axion Quark Nuggets
• Explaining the ANITA events by a $L_e-L_{\tau }$ gauge model
• Coherent radio emission from the electron beam sudden appearance
• A search for the anomalous events detected by ANITA using the Pierre Auger Observatory