Toward Radio Detection of PeV Neutrinos on the Cubic Kilometer Scale

Abstract

Interactions of ultrahigh energy neutrinos of cosmological origin in large volumes of radio-transparent South Polar ice can be detected via coherent Cherenkov emission from accompanying electromagnetic showers. A pilot experiment employing buried radio receivers has been successfully deployed at the South Pole and data are now being collected. The physics of coherent radio emission together with the properties of radio-pulse propagation in Antarctic ice clearly distinguishes the radio method from phototube detection. In the context of the proposed km^3-scale neutrino telescope, these two detection modes provide complementary information on UHE neutrino interactions.