HEP@VUB meeting: 12:00 - 13:00

Thursday Nov 9, 2023, 12:00 PM → 1:00 PM Europe/Brussels

G/1-G.1.03 - J. Sacton (Building G)

External Speaker: Dylan Frikken (Ohio State University)

More information on the Radar Echo Telescope can be found on their website.

The seminar will be done in person and it will be accompanied by sandwiches provided by the VUB.

12:00 PM → 1:00 PM The Radar Echo Telescope

Ultra-high-energy (UHE) neutrinos are a unique probe into the cosmos. Neutrinos present a means to probe fundamental physics but have yet to be studied over several orders of magnitude at the highest energies. However, due to a steeply falling flux and a small interaction cross-section, UHE neutrinos are difficult to detect. To probe the UHE neutrino flux above a few PeV, many experiments are employing radio-based methods to increase the instrumented volume of detection. One such technique is the radar echo method, which relies on reflection of a transmitted radio wave off the ionization trail produced in a UHE neutrino interaction. In this talk, I will discuss the historical context, theoretical base, and status of the Radar Echo Telescope (RET) collaboration including the Radar Echo Telescope for Neutrinos (RET-N) and its pathfinder experiment, the Radar Echo Telescope for Cosmic Rays (RET-CR) which was recently deployed to Greenland. I will also discuss signal properties unique to the radar problem, and potential reconstruction techniques of the method.

Speaker: Dylan Frikken (Ohio State University)