The Prediction and Detection of UHE Neutrino Bursts

TL;DR

This paper proposes a cost-effective km^2 detector in deep water to observe ultra-high-energy neutrino bursts associated with gamma ray bursts, enabling tests of fundamental physics principles.

Contribution

It introduces an efficient design for a large-area neutrino detector in deep water, optimized for detecting UHE neutrino bursts coincident with GRBs.

Findings

Estimated detection of ~20 neutrino events in one year

Detector construction cost under $3 million

Potential to test relativity principles through coincident observations

Abstract

In this paper we look at \sim 10^14 eV neutrino bursts which are predicted to be observed in correlation with gamma ray bursts (GRBs). We describe an efficient way of constructing a km^2 effective area detector for these neutrino bursts. The proposed detector will cost <$3M and will operate in the 4-km deep water off St.Croix for at least one year, sufficient time to collect the expected \sim 20 events in coincidence with satellite measured GRBs provided the fireball model is correct. Coincident gamma ray and neutrino bursts can be used to test the limits of the relativity principles.