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

neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that i ...

s (greater than 1 P eV, so-called ultra-high energy UHE neutrinos) with the

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

ice cap (ice molecules). The goals of this experiment are to determine the potential of the radio-detection technique for measuring the high energy cosmic neutrino

flux Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications in physics. For transport phe ...

, determining the sources of this flux, and measuring neutrino-

nucleon In physics and chemistry, a nucleon is either a proton or a neutron, considered in its role as a component of an atomic nucleus. The number of nucleons in a nucleus defines the atom's mass number. Until the 1960s, nucleons were thought to be ele ...

cross sections at energies above those accessible with existing accelerators. Such an experiment also has sensitivity to neutrinos from

gamma ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely energetic events occurring in distant galaxies which represent the brightest and most powerful class of explosion in the universe. These extreme electromagnetic emissions are second ...

s, as well as highly ionizing charged particles (monopoles, e.g.) traversing the Antarctic icecap. The experiment operated 1999-2012 (prototypes before 1999, data-taking 1999-2010). The experiment's radio receivers were located 100–350 meters deep under the ice-sheet directly below the Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory (MAPO) at the

South Pole Station South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

. The MAPO-building housed the experiment's hardware. The drill holes housing the radio receivers were primarily drilled for the

AMANDA Amanda is a Latin feminine gerundive (i.e. verbal adjective) name meaning, literally, "she who must (or is fit to) be loved". Other translations, with similar meaning, could be "deserving to be loved," "worthy of love," or "loved very much by ev ...

and later (AMANDA was shut down 2009)

IceCube The IceCube Neutrino Observatory (or simply IceCube) is a neutrino observatory developed by the University of Wisconsin–Madison and constructed at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. The project is a recognized CERN experim ...

experiments; RICE used the holes as a secondary experiment.

Experimental operation and results

Two

antennas In radio-frequency engineering, an antenna (American English) or aerial (British English) is an electronic device that converts an alternating electric current into radio waves (transmitting), or radio waves into an electric current (receivi ...

were installed successfully during the 1995–96 austral summer. During the 1996–97 season, a prototype array of three antennas was deployed down the (AMANDA) bore holes at depths from 140–210 meters. This prototype demonstrated the ability to successfully deploy receivers and transmitters and enabled an estimate of the noise temperature in the deep ice. Several more receivers and transmitters were deployed in three new AMANDA holes during the 1997–1998 season, in dedicated (specifically drilled for RICE) shallow "dry" holes during the 1998–99 season, and finally in several AMANDA holes drilled during the 1999–2000 season. Five years of data-taking (two years of livetime) resulted in the most stringent upper limits on the neutrino flux in the interval 50 PeV – 1 EeV, as well as results on departures from

Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...

cross-sections and searches for gamma-ray burst coincidences. Currently, RICE hardware is being modified for use in the IceCube boreholes being drilled from 2006 to 2010. In 2008-2009, the RICE experiment was extended into the

Neutrino Array Radio Calibration The Neutrino Array Radio Calibration (NARC) experiment was the successor to the Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment (RICE) which served as a testbed for future development of an eventual large-scale neutrino radio-detection array. NARC involved detect ...

(NARC) experiment. The continued experiment is known as RICE/NARC or just RICE. In 2012, the results of the full dataset (collected 2000-2010) of RICE (RICE/NARC) were published and the RICE (RICE/NARC) experiment was described as "presently at the end of useful data-taking." No ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrinos were detected; this is in accordance with theoretic expectation. The radio Cherenkov technique of detecting neutrinos is continued by RICE's successor experiment,

Askaryan Radio Array The Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) is a new detector designed to detect a few GZK neutrinos a year. It measures the enhanced radio-frequency radiation emitted during the interaction of the neutrino in Antarctic ice sheet. The detection is based on th ...

(ARA), to which RICE hardware (and some of the researchers) was transferred. ARA is also deployed at the South Pole Station under ice. First ARA prototype was tested in South Pole in the Antarctic summer of 2010-2011.

References

External links

Neutrino Flux Upper Limit ResultsCalibration of ExperimentGamma-Ray Burst Coincidence SearchBounds on Low-Scale Gravity
{{neutrino detectors Astronomical experiments in the Antarctic Neutrino astronomy

Experimental operation and results

See also

References

External links