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Measurements of the suitability of large rock salt formations for radio detection of high-energy neutrinos |
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| Authors: | Peter Gorham David Saltzberg Allen Odian Dawn Williams David Besson George Frichter Sami Tantawi |
| Affiliation: | a Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA b Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, 405 Hilgard Ave., Mailstop 154705, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547, USA c Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94309, USA d Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA e Department of Physics, Florida State University, USA |
| Abstract: | We have investigated the possibility that large rock salt formations might be suitable as target masses for detection of neutrinos of energies about 10 PeV and above. In neutrino interactions at these energies, the secondary electromagnetic cascade produces a coherent radio pulse well above ambient thermal noise via the Askaryan effect. We describe measurements of radio-frequency attenuation lengths and ambient thermal noise in two salt formations. Measurements in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, located in an evaporite salt bed in Carlsbad, NM yielded short attenuation lengths, 3–7 m over 150–300 MHz. However, measurements at United Salt's Hockley mine, located in a salt dome near Houston, Texas yielded attenuation lengths in excess of 250 m at similar frequencies. We have also analyzed early ground-penetrating radar data at Hockley mine and have found additional evidence for attenuation lengths in excess of several hundred meters at 440 MHz. We conclude that salt domes, which may individually contain several hundred cubic kilometer water-equivalent mass, provide attractive sites for next-generation high-energy neutrino detectors. |
| Keywords: | Astrophysical neutrinos Cherenkov radiation Electromagnetic waves (radio) |
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