The Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) is a new detector designed to detect a few
GZK neutrino
A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...
s a year. It measures the enhanced
radio-frequency radiation emitted during the interaction of the neutrino in
Antarctic ice sheet
The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of Earth. It covers about 98% of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth, with an average thickness of over 2 kilometers. It covers an area of almost a ...
. The detection is based on the
Askaryan effect
The Askaryan radiation also known as Askaryan effect is the phenomenon whereby a particle traveling faster than the phase velocity of light in a dense dielectric (such as salt, ice or the lunar regolith) produces a shower of secondary charged par ...
, an idea by
Gurgen Askaryan
Gurgen Ashotovich Askaryan ( hy, Գուրգեն Ասկարյան; russian: Гурген Аскарьян or Гурген Аскарян) (14 December 1928 – 2 March 1997) was a prominent Soviet - Armenian physicist, famous for his discovery of ...
This detection technique is also being used by the
Antarctic Impulse Transient Antenna The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment has been designed to study ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic neutrinos by detecting the radio pulses emitted by their interactions with the Antarctic ice sheet. This is to be accomplished us ...
(ANITA) and the
Radio Ice Cerenkov Experiment
Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment (RICE) was an experiment designed to detect the Cherenkov emission in the radio regime of the electromagnetic spectrum from the interaction of high energy neutrinos (greater than 1 P eV, so-called ultra-high ...
(RICE) detectors. The ARA experiment will be built around the
IceCube
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory (or simply IceCube) is a neutrino observatory constructed at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. The project is a recognized CERN experiment (RE10).
Its thousands of sensors are located under t ...
experiment, and will cover an area of approximately 100 square kilometers.
A 16-antenna prototype station, the "ARA Testbed" , of the ARA system was installed January 2011 (season 2010–2011) and began operation allowing the ARA Collaboration to determine the estimated sensitivity of the array design: ARA-37 will cover 200 km
2 with neutrino sensitivity of 10
16–10
19 eV. Measurements of the radio background and ice attenuation length were reported.
The first ARA station was installed in the season (Antarctic summer season; winter in northern hemisphere) 2011–2012; stations 2 and 3 were installed in the season 2012–2013 and stations 4 and 5 in season 2017–2018. The ARA array had five stations as of 2018. The Phase 1 goal of ARA is 37 stations.
Collaborators
*
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 m ...
*
University of Hawaii
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
*
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...
*
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the Flagship un ...
*
University of Nebraska
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
*
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
*
Free University of Brussels (IIHE)
*
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...
*
National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan.
The university was founded in 1928 during Taiwan under Japanese rule, Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imper ...
*
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = � ...
*
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology ( he, הטכניון – מכון טכנולוגי לישראל) is a public research university located in Haifa, Israel. Established in 1912 under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire, the Technio ...
*
Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli univ ...
*
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
* '
Askaryan Radio Array Home Page''
{{Neutrino detectors
Neutrino observatories