Particle and Astroparticle Physics Seminar

ARA Status and Development

Simon Archambault

Chiba University

The Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) is a neutrino detector currently under construction at the South Pole, next to the IceCube experiment. Its aim is to detect neutrinos resulting from the interaction of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and the Cosmic Microwave Background (the GZK process). The experiment uses radio antennas to detect the Askaryan emission from the neutrinos interacting in the Antarctica ice sheet. Once fully operational, ARA's sensitivity should be nearly 10 times better than IceCube, after 3 years of observations. A successful analysis requires a good understanding of the antenna properties, especially their behaviour when in ice. This talk will present work done to further this understanding, in terms of finite-difference time-domain (fdtd) simulations and measurements at the South Pole.