A First Search for Cosmogenic Neutrinos with the ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array

TL;DR

This paper reports on the initial search for cosmogenic neutrinos using the ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array, setting upper limits on neutrino flux and evaluating detector performance and sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces the ARIANNA HRA prototype, describes data collection and analysis methods, and provides the first upper limits on cosmogenic neutrino flux in the 10^8-10^10 GeV range.

Findings

No neutrino candidates detected in the data.

Set a 90% confidence level upper limit on neutrino flux.

Simulated full detector performance and sensitivity are presented.

Abstract

The ARIANNA experiment seeks to observe the diffuse flux of neutrinos in the 10^8 - 10^10 GeV energy range using a grid of radio detectors at the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. The detector measures the coherent Cherenkov radiation produced at radio frequencies, from about 100 MHz to 1 GHz, by charged particle showers generated by neutrino interactions in the ice. The ARIANNA Hexagonal Radio Array (HRA) is being constructed as a prototype for the full array. During the 2013-14 austral summer, three HRA stations collected radio data which was wirelessly transmitted off site in nearly real-time. The performance of these stations is described and a simple analysis to search for neutrino signals is presented. The analysis employs a set of three cuts that reject background triggers while preserving 90% of simulated cosmogenic neutrino triggers. No neutrino candidates are found in the data and a model-independent 90% confidence level Neyman upper limit is placed on the all flavor neutrino+antineutrino flux in a sliding decade-wide energy bin. The limit reaches a minimum of 1.9x10^-23 GeV^-1 cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 in the 10^8.5 - 10^9.5 GeV energy bin. Simulations of the performance of the full detector are also described. The sensitivity of the full ARIANNA experiment is presented and compared with current neutrino flux models.