Sadco: Hydroacoustic Detection of Super-High Energy Cosmic Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper proposes using underwater hydroacoustic arrays to detect super-high-energy cosmic neutrinos by capturing acoustic signals from neutrino-induced cascades, potentially enabling large-volume detection of these rare particles.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of utilizing existing hydroacoustic arrays as neutrino detectors, estimating their detection volume and exploring their potential for studying ultra-high-energy cosmic phenomena.

Findings

Detection volume estimated at hundreds of cubic kilometers.

Feasibility of using existing hydroacoustic arrays for neutrino detection.

Potential to test models of high-energy particle production in the universe.

Abstract

An attractive technique to explore for super-high-energy cosmic neutrino fluxes, via deep underwater acoustic detection, is discussed. Acoustic signals emitted by the neutrino induced cascades at large distances (10-50 km) from cascades are considered. It is argued that an existing hydroacoustic array of 2400 hydrophones, which is available in the Great Ocean near Kamchatka Peninsula, could be used as a base for an exploratory acoustic neutrino telescope SADCO (Sea Acoustic Detector of Cosmic Objects). The detection volume for registration of cascades with energies in the range of $10^{20-21} eV$ is estimated to be hundreds of cubic kilometers. Some models of extremely high energy elementary particle production in the Universe (for example the topological defect model) may be examined by such a detector. Tests of this technique are hoped for within a year.