Triboelectric Backgrounds to radio-based UHE Neutrino Exeperiments
Abstract
The proposed IceCube-Gen2 (ICG2) seeks to instrument ~500 sq. km of Antarctic ice near the geographic South Pole with radio antennas, in order to observe the highest energy (E>1 EeV) neutrinos in the Universe. To this end, ICG2 will use the impulsive radio-frequency (RF) signal produced by neutrino interactions in polar ice caps. In such experiments, rare single event candidates must be unambiguously separated from background; to date, signal identification strategies primarily reject thermal noise and anthropogenic backgrounds. Here, we consider the possibility that fake neutrino signals may also be naturally generated via the 'triboelectric effect'. This broadly includes any process in which force applied at a boundary layer results in displacement of surface charge, generating a potential difference {\Delta}V. Wind blowing over granular surfaces such as snow can induce such a {\Delta}V, with subsequent discharge. Discharges over nanosecond-timescales can then lead to RF emissions at characteristic MHz-GHz frequencies. We find that such backgrounds are evident in the several neutrino experiments considered, and are generally characterized by: a) a threshold wind velocity which likely depends on the experimental signal trigger threshold and layout; for the experiments considered herein, this value is typically O(10 m/s), b) frequency spectra generally shifted to the low-end of the frequency regime to which current radio experiments are typically sensitive (100-200 MHz), c) for the strongest background signals, an apparent preference for discharges from above-surface structures, although the presence of more isotropic, lower amplitude triboelectric discharges cannot be excluded.
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Cite
@article{arxiv.2103.06079,
title = {Triboelectric Backgrounds to radio-based UHE Neutrino Exeperiments},
author = {J. A. Aguilar and A. Anker and P. Allison and S. Archambault and P. Baldi and S. W. Barwick and J. J. Beatty and J. Beise and D. Besson and A. Bishop and E. Bondarev and O. Botner and S. Bouma and S. Buitink and M. Cataldo and C. C. Chen and C. H. Chen and P. Chen and Y. C. Chen and B. A. Clark and W. Clay and Z. Curtis-Ginsberg and A. Connolly and P. Dasgupta and S. de Kockere and K. D. de Vries and C. Deaconu and M. A. DuVernois and J. Flaherty and E. Friedman and R. Gaior and G. Gaswint and C. Glaser and A. Hallgren and S. Hallmann and J. C. Hanson and N. Harty and B. Hendricks and K. D. Hoffman and C. Hornhuber and S. Y. Hsu and L. Hu and J. J. Huang and M. -H. Huang and K. Hughes and A. Ishihara and A. Karle and J. L. Kelley and S. R. Klein and S. A. Kleinfelder and K. -C. Kim and M. -C. Kim and I. Kravchenko and R. Krebs and Y. Ku and C. Y. Kuo and K. Kurusu and R. Lahmann and H. Landsman and U. Latif and C. -J. Li and J. Liu and T. -C. Liu and M. -Y. Lu and K. Madison and J. Mammo and K. Mase and S. McAleer and T. Meures and Z. S. Meyers and K. Michaels and M. Mikhailova and K. Mulrey and J. Nam and R. J. Nichol and A. Nelles and A. Novikov and A. Nozdrina and E. Oberla and B. Oeyen and J. Osborn and Y. Pan and H. Pandya and M. P. Paul and C. Persichilli and I. Plaisier and N. Punsuebsay and L. Pyras and R. Rice-Smith and J. Roth and D. Ryckbosch and O. Scholten and D. Seckel and M. F. H. Seikh and Y. -S. Shiao and D. Smith and D. Southall and J. Tatar and J. Torres and S. Toscano and D. Tosi and J. Touart and D. J. Van Den Broeck and N. van Eijndhoven and G. S. Varner and A. G. Vieregg and M. -Z. Wang and S. -H Wang and Y. H. Wang and C. Welling and D. R. Williams and S. Wissel and C. Xie and S. Yoshida and R. Young and L. Zhao and A. Zink},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.06079},
year = {2022}
}