Reflections On the Anomalous ANITA Events: The Antarctic Subsurface as a Possible Explanation

Abstract

The ANITA balloon experiment was designed to detect radio signals initiated by neutrinos and cosmic ray air showers. These signals are typically discriminated by the polarization and phase inversions of the radio signal. The reflected signal from cosmic rays suffer phase inversion compared to a direct tau neutrino event. In this paper we study sub-surface reflection, which can occur without phase inversion, in the context of the two anomalous up-going events reported by ANITA. We find that subsurface layers and firn density inversions may plausibly account for the events, while ice fabric layers and wind ablation crusts could also play a role. This hypothesis can be tested with radar surveying of the Antarctic region in the vicinity of the anomalous ANITA events. Future experiments should not use phase inversion as a sole criterion to discriminate between downgoing and upgoing events, unless the subsurface reflection properties are well understood.

arXiv comment4+2 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (19)

• The Origin of Galactic Cosmic Rays
• An improved limit to the diffuse flux of ultra-high energy neutrinos from the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Observation of Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays with the ANITA Balloon-borne Radio Interferometer
• Characteristics of Four Upward-pointing Cosmic-ray-like Events Observed with ANITA
• Observation of an Unusual Upward-going Cosmic-ray-like Event in the Third Flight of ANITA
• Neutrino cross sections at high energies and the future observations of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays
• Constraints on the diffuse high-energy neutrino flux from the third flight of ANITA
• Energy and Flux Measurements of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays Observed During the First ANITA Flight
• Gravitino Decay in High Scale Supersymmetry with R-parity Violation
• A comprehensive analysis of anomalous ANITA events disfavors a diffuse tau-neutrino flux origin
• A Sterile Neutrino Origin for the Upward Directed Cosmic Ray Showers Detected by ANITA
• Upgoing ANITA events as evidence of the CPT symmetric universe
• 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
• A Dark Matter Interpretation of the ANITA Anomalous Events
• Supersymmetric sphaleron configurations as the origin of the perplexing ANITA events
• Can the ANITA anomalous events be due to new physics?
• Superheavy Dark Matter and ANITA's Anomalous Events
• HiCal 2: An instrument designed for calibration of the ANITA experiment and for Antarctic surface reflectivity measurements

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Dark Matter Annihilation to Neutrinos
• Design and Sensitivity of the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G)
• The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO): A White Paper
• Addressing $R_{D^{(\ast )}}$, $R_{K^{(\ast )}}$, muon $g-2$ and ANITA anomalies in a minimal $R$-parity violating supersymmetric framework
• Snowmass White Paper: Beyond the Standard Model effects on Neutrino Flavor
• POEMMA's Target of Opportunity Sensitivity to Cosmic Neutrino Transient Sources
• Tau Neutrinos in the Next Decade: from GeV to EeV
• Unified explanation of flavor anomalies, radiative neutrino mass and ANITA anomalous events in a vector leptoquark model
• A search for IceCube events in the direction of ANITA neutrino candidates
• Prospects for High-Elevation Radio Detection of >100 PeV Tau Neutrinos
• Explaining the ANITA Anomaly with Inelastic Boosted Dark Matter
• Unusual Near-horizon Cosmic-ray-like Events Observed by ANITA-IV
• A dark matter telescope probing the 6 to 60 GHz band
• Analysis of a Tau Neutrino Origin for the Near-Horizon Air Shower Events Observed by the Fourth Flight of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA)
• The ANITA Anomalous Events and Axion Quark Nuggets
• Explaining the ANITA events by a $L_e-L_{\tau }$ gauge model
• TAROGE-M: Radio Antenna Array on Antarctic High Mountain for Detecting Near-Horizontal Ultra-High Energy Air Showers
• Connecting ANITA Anomalous Events to a Non-thermal Dark Matter Scenario
• Anomalous ANITA air shower events and tau decays
• Experimental tests of sub-surface reflectors as an explanation for the ANITA anomalous events
• On the Tau flavor of the cosmic neutrino flux
• A search for the anomalous events detected by ANITA using the Pierre Auger Observatory
• The pros and cons of beyond standard model interpretations of ANITA events
• Sensitivity to Atypical Tau Initiated Air Showers For a High-Altitude Optical Cherenkov Detector