IIHE Invited seminar: Tuning into Tau Neutrinos

Abstract: Neutrinos are the ideal messenger for high-energy astrophysics. Weakly interacting and uncharged, they propagate undeterred and unabsorbed through the universe. In the last decade, the IceCube experiment has brought us the discovery of a flux of high-energy, TeV-scale neutrinos and through a multi-messenger lens — the combined observations of neutrinos and other messengers like photons —  we are starting to see hints of energetic neutrino sources for the first time. At higher energies still, beyond the PeV scale, we can probe the most energetic sources of both neutrinos and cosmic rays, but current neutrino experiments become too small to observe a sizable flux. Radio experiments can achieve the large exposures necessary by taking advantage of the coherent broadband radio emission resulting from ultra-high-energy (E>10¹⁷ eV) neutrino interactions as well as the large volumes visible from high elevations. In this talk, I will review results from current and future high-elevation radio experiments, with a particular focus on Earth-skimming tau neutrinos and cosmic ray air showers as observed with from mountains with BEACON and HERON.

Short bio: Stephanie Wissel’s work centers on multi-messenger astrophysics, with a particular emphasis on ultra-high energy neutrinos. Neutrinos play a key role in this growing field that combines observations from neutrinos, photons, cosmic rays, and gravitational waves to understand particle accelerators and the extreme physics that drives them. She has been working in astroparticle radio detection since 2012.  She currently works on ARA, BEACON, PUEO, RNO-G, and IceCube-Gen2. She has been recognized for her work with an NSF CAREER Award as the PI on the BEACON experiment and with a Downsbrough Early Career Development Professorship in Physics