Title: Accelerator measurements of the Askaryan effect in rock salt: A roadmap toward teraton underground neutrino detectors

Abstract

Here, we report on further SLAC measurements of the Askaryan effect: coherent radio emission from charge asymmetry in electromagnetic cascades. We used synthetic rock salt as the dielectric medium, with cascades produced by GeV bremsstrahlung photons at the Final Focus Test Beam. We extend our prior discovery measurements to a wider range of parameter space and explore the effect in a dielectric medium of great potential interest to large-scale ultra-high-energy neutrino detectors: rock salt (halite), which occurs naturally in high purity formations containing in many cases hundreds of km³ of water-equivalent mass. We observed strong coherent pulsed radio emission over a frequency band from 0.2–15 GHz. A grid of embedded dual-polarization antennas was used to confirm the high degree of linear polarization and track the change of direction of the electric-field vector with azimuth around the shower. Coherence was observed over 4 orders of magnitude of shower energy. The frequency dependence of the radiation was tested over 2 orders of magnitude of UHF and microwave frequencies. We have also made the first observations of coherent transition radiation from the Askaryan charge excess, and the result agrees well with theoretical predictions. Based on these results we have performed a detailed andmore » conservative simulation of a realistic GZK neutrino telescope array within a salt dome, and we find it capable of detecting 10 or more contained events per year from even the most conservative GZK neutrino models.« less

Authors:

Gorham, P. W. ^[1]; Saltzberg, D. ^[2]; Field, R. C. ^[3]; Guillian, E. ^[1]; Milinčić, R. ^[1]; Miočinović, P. ^[1]; Walz, D. ^[3]; Williams, D. ^[4]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI (United States)
2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
3. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
4. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)

Publication Date:

Thu Jul 21 00:00:00 EDT 2005

Research Org.:

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC)

OSTI Identifier:

1442457

Report Number(s):

SLAC-PUB-10911
Journal ID: ISSN 1550-7998; PRVDAQ; TRN: US1900924

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-76SF00515

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Physical Review. D, Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 72; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1550-7998

Publisher:

American Physical Society (APS)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS