Development of a scintillation and radio hybrid detector array at the South Pole

TL;DR

This paper describes the development and deployment of a hybrid detector array combining scintillation and radio detection at the South Pole to enhance cosmic ray detection and serve as R&D for future large-scale arrays.

Contribution

The paper presents the design, construction, and installation plan of a novel hybrid detector array integrating scintillation and radio antennas for cosmic ray studies at the South Pole.

Findings

Prototype station successfully installed at South Pole in 2020

Design demonstrates integration of scintillation and radio detection technologies

Planned full array installation by 2026

Abstract

At the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a Surface Array Enhancement is planned, consisting of 32 hybrid stations, placed within the current IceTop footprint. This surface enhancement will considerably increase the detection sensitivity to cosmic rays in the 100 TeV to 1 EeV primary energy range, measure the effects of snow accumulation on the existing IceTop tanks and serve as R&D for the possible future large-scale surface array of IceCube-Gen2. Each station has one central hybrid DAQ, which reads out 8 scintillation detectors and 3 radio antennas. The radio antenna SKALA-2 is used in this array due to its low-noise, high amplification and sensitivity in the 70-350 MHz frequency band. Every scintillation detector has an active area of 1.5 m$^2$ organic plastic scintillators connected by wavelength-shifting fibers, which are connected to a silicon photomultiplier. The signals from the scintillation detectors are integrated and digitized by a local custom electronics board and transferred to the central DAQ. When triggered by the scintillation detectors, the filtered and amplified analog waveforms from the radio antennas are read out and digitized by the central DAQ. A full prototype station has been developed and built and was installed at the South Pole in January 2020. It is planned to install the full array by 2026. In this contribution the hardware design of the array as well as the installation plans will be presented.