SMEX03-0004-0019

Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna: A Long Duration Balloon High Energy Neutrino Observatory

Peter Gorham (PI), University of Hawaii at Manoa

 

ANITA will establish the first high energy neutrino observatory among NASA missions, using the entire Antarctic ice sheet as a collecting aperture for particles which originate in the most extreme environments in the universe: the inner edges of massive black hole accretion disks, the intense radiation fields within gamma-ray burst sources, and the collisions of the highest energy cosmic rays in the universe with the cosmic microwave background radiation integrated over the entire volume of our visible universe.  A balloon payload at nearly 40km altitude can observe 1.5M cubic km of extremely radio-transparent ice out to its visible horizon.  Neutrinos at EeV energies interact within the ice and produce an intense, compact particle shower, several m in length and cm in diameter.  Pulsed radio emission from these intense showers is visible at great distances, and the radio quiet environment of Antarctica will facilitate their detection.

 

Gorham  , Peter 

Principal Investigator

University of Hawaii at Manoa 

Barwick  , Steven 

Co-Investigator 

University of California Irvine 

Beatty  , James 

Co-Investigator 

Pennsylvania State University 

Besson  , Dave 

Co-Investigator 

University of Kansas 

Clem  , John 

Collaborator 

University of Delaware 

Coutu  , Stephane 

Collaborator 

Pennsylvania State University 

Cowen  , Doug 

Co-Investigator 

Penn State University 

DuVernois  , Michael 

Co-Investigator 

University of Minnesota 

Enokawa  , Marvin 

Authorizing Official 

University of Hawaii 

Evenson  , Paul 

Collaborator 

University of Delaware 

Halzen  , Francis 

Collaborator 

University of Wisconsin 

Kieda  , David 

Collaborator 

University of Utah 

Learned  , John 

Collaborator 

University of Hawaii at Manoa 

Liewer  , Kurt 

Co-Investigator 

NASA - Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

Matsuno  , Shigenobu 

Collaborator 

University of Hawaii at Manoa 

Naudet  , Charles 

Co-Investigator 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

Saltzberg  , David 

Co-Investigator 

University of California Los Angeles 

Seckel  , David 

Co-Investigator 

University of Delaware 

Varner  , Gary 

Co-Investigator 

University of Hawaii at Manoa