The history of acoustic neutrino detection technology is shortly reviewed from the first ideas 50 years ago to the detailed R&D programs of the last decade. The physics potential of ultra-high energy ...neutrino interaction studies is discussed for some examples. Ideas about the necessary detector size and suitable design are presented.
The ARENA Workshop in Zeuthen was the first to combine extensively the fields of acoustic and radio detection techniques for high-energetic particle cascades from cosmic neutrino interactions. The ...articles in this volume comprise the latest research work which was presented by over 50 speakers from 10 countries. The wide coverage includes: theoretical predictions on fluxes and the potentialities of new techniques, theoretical and experimental results on target material properties, the fundamentals of interactions and cascade simulation, and current experimental results and the most recent neutrino flux limits. The book also considers future plans and experiments for both radio and acoustic methods with the aim of giving the reader an up-to-date overview of this rapidly developing field.
► We review the physics case of the next-generation neutrino observatory LENA. ► The low-energy program aims at the observation of astrophysical neutrino sources. ► At GeV energies, proton decay and ...long-baseline neutrino beam experiments explore Grand Unification and oscillation parameters. ► The current status of the LENA detector design is presented.
As part of the European LAGUNA design study on a next-generation neutrino detector, we propose the liquid-scintillator detector LENA (Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy) as a multipurpose neutrino observatory. The outstanding successes of the Borexino and KamLAND experiments demonstrate the large potential of liquid-scintillator detectors in low-energy neutrino physics. Low energy threshold, good energy resolution and efficient background discrimination are inherent to the liquid-scintillator technique. A target mass of 50kt will offer a substantial increase in detection sensitivity.
At low energies, the variety of detection channels available in liquid scintillator will allow for an energy – and flavor-resolved analysis of the neutrino burst emitted by a galactic Supernova. Due to target mass and background conditions, LENA will also be sensitive to the faint signal of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background. Solar metallicity, time-variation in the solar neutrino flux and deviations from MSW–LMA survival probabilities can be investigated based on unprecedented statistics. Low background conditions allow to search for dark matter by observing rare annihilation neutrinos. The large number of events expected for geoneutrinos will give valuable information on the abundances of Uranium and Thorium and their relative ratio in the Earth’s crust and mantle. Reactor neutrinos enable a high-precision measurement of solar mixing parameters. A strong radioactive or pion decay-at-rest neutrino source can be placed close to the detector to investigate neutrino oscillations for short distances and sub-MeV to MeV energies.
At high energies, LENA will provide a new lifetime limit for the SUSY-favored proton decay mode into kaon and antineutrino, surpassing current experimental limits by about one order of magnitude. Recent studies have demonstrated that a reconstruction of momentum and energy of GeV particles is well feasible in liquid scintillator. Monte Carlo studies on the reconstruction of the complex event topologies found for neutrino interactions at multi-GeV energies have shown promising results. If this is confirmed, LENA might serve as far detector in a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment currently investigated in LAGUNA-LBNO.
The ARENA Workshop in Zeuthen was the first to combine extensively the fields of acoustic and radio detection techniques for high-energetic particle cascades from cosmic neutrino interactions. The ...articles in this volume comprise the latest research work which was presented by over 50 speakers from 10 countries. The wide coverage includes: theoretical predictions on fluxes and the potentialities of new techniques, theoretical and experimental results on target material properties, the fundamentals of interactions and cascade simulation, and current experimental results and the most recent neutrino flux limits. The book also considers future plans and experiments for both radio and acoustic methods with the aim of giving the reader an up-to-date overview of this rapidly developing field.
Acoustic particle detection techniques have experienced a strong revival during the last few years, but are still in an R&D phase. Progress has been made since ARENA2005 a year ago in particular in ...simulation techniques for particle energy deposition, sound generation and propagation as well as detector response. Also new signal processing and reconstruction techniques have been reported. Recent in-situ measurements allowed to study available transducers in natural environments. Several projects, to be realized during the next years, aim to deliver the basic input for future arrays of ~100 km3 size. To study successfully highest energy cosmic neutrinos such arrays should use hybrid detection techniques, with optical, radio and acoustic sensors as basic elements.
To detect the tiny flux of ultra-high energy neutrinos from active galactic nuclei or from interactions of highest energy cosmic rays with the microwave background photons needs target masses of the ...order of several hundred cubic kilometers. Clear Antarctic ice has been discussed as a favorable material for hybrid detection of optical, radio and acoustic signals from ultra-high energy neutrino interactions. To apply these technologies at the adequate scale hundreds of holes have to be drilled in the ice down to depths of about 2500 m to deploy the corresponding sensors. To do this on a reasonable time scale is impossible with presently available tools. Remote drilling and deployment schemes have to be developed to make such a detector design reality. After a short discussion of the status of modern hot water drilling we present here a design of an autonomous melting probe, tested 50 years ago to reach a depth of about 1000 m in Greenland ice. A scenario how to build such a probe today with modern technologies is sketched. A first application of such probes could be the deployment of calibration equipment at any required position in the ice, to study its optical, radio and acoustic transmission properties.
The history of acoustic neutrino detection technology is shortly reviewed from first ideas 50 years ago to the detailed R&D programs of the last decade. The physics potential of ultra-high energy ...neutrino interaction studies is discussed for some examples. Ideas about the necessary detector size and suitable design are presented.
Several experimental techniques are currently under development, to measure
the expected tiny fluxes of highest energy neutrinos above 10**18 eV. Projects
in different stages of realisation are ...discussed here, which are based on
optical and radio as well as acoustic detectors. For the detection of neutrino
events in this energy range a combination of different detector concepts in one
experiment seems to be most promising.
Several experimental techniques are currently under development, to measure the expected tiny fluxes of highest energy neutrinos above 10
18 eV. Projects in different stages of realization are ...discussed here, which are based on optical and radio as well as acoustic detectors. For the detection of neutrino events in this energy range a combination of different detector concepts in one experiment seems to be most promising.
Several experimental techniques are currently under development, to measure the expected tiny fluxes of highest energy neutrinos above 10**18 eV. Projects in different stages of realisation are ...discussed here, which are based on optical and radio as well as acoustic detectors. For the detection of neutrino events in this energy range a combination of different detector concepts in one experiment seems to be most promising.
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