Studies of an air-shower imaging system for the detection of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos

Abstract

We discuss the acceptance and sensitivity of a small air-shower imaging system to detect earth-skimming ultrahigh-energy tau neutrinos. The instrument we study is located on top of a mountain and has an azimuthal field of view of $360^{\circ }$. We find that the acceptance and sensitivity of such a system is close to maximal if it is located about 2 km above ground, has a vertical field of view of $5^{\circ }$, allows the reconstruction of an at least $0.3^{\circ }$ long air-shower image, and features an effective light-collection area of $10$ m${}^2$ in any direction. After three years of operation, an imaging system with these features achieves an all-flavor neutrino flux sensitivity of $5\times 10^{-9}$ GeV cm${}^{-2}$ s${}^{-1}$ sr${}^{-1}$ at $2\times 10^8$ GeV.

arXiv comment18 pages, 23 figures

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