https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201921604008
Radio Phased Arrays for the Detection of Ultra-High Energy Neutrinos
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
USA
★ e-mail: ejo@uchicago.edu
Published online: 24 September 2019
Ground-based radio arrays offer a promising future for the measurement of ultra-high energy neutrinos, including the prospect of reducing the radio-detection energy threshold to a level necessary to overlap with the high-energy range probed by IceCube (~1016 eV). Here we describe a phased array of antennas and beamforming electronics, which serves as a highly sensitive and directional trigger system for nanosecond-scale plane wave impulses. A prototype in-ice phased array was successfully installed during the 2017/18 austral summer at the South Pole in collaboration with the Askaryan Radio Array (ARA). The trigger array is a compact string of 7 in-ice dipole antennas deployed at a depth of 200 m, whose signals are continuously digitized at the surface using 1.5 GSa/s ADCs with 7-bit resolution. We measure a 50% trigger efficiency on band-limited impulses with signal-to-noise ratios of 2.0 or smaller.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2019
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
