Development of a Cherenkov Telescope for the Detection of Ultra-High Energy Neutrinos with EUSO-SPB2 and POEMMA

Abstract

The detection of astrophysical neutrinos by IceCube and the potential to constrain source models of ultra-high energy cosmic rays provide the motivation to develop instruments for the observation of neutrinos above 10 7 GeV. Among the different techniques to detect ultra-high energy neutrinos is the Earth-skimming technique. It makes use of the fact that the tau produced in a tau neutrino interaction inside the Earth can emerge from the ground and initiate an upward-going particle shower in the atmosphere. The particle shower and thus the neutrino can be reconstructed by measuring the Cherenkov and radio emission from the shower particles. In this presentation, we discuss our ongoing development of a Cherenkov telescope for the detection of tau neutrinos, which is to be deployed on the Extreme Universe Space Observatory Super Pressure Balloon 2 (EUSO-SPB2) and is a precursor experiment for the proposed Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) mission. POEMMA aims at the detection of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and ultrahigh energy neutrinos from low earth orbit. The 1 m 2 Cherenkov telescope for EUSO-SPB2 will use silicon photomultipliers coupled to a 100 MS/s readout based on the ASIC for General Electronics for TPC's (AGET) switch capacitor ring sampler. We present the optics, results from our studies to qualify the readout concept and the design of the mechanical integration of the photon detectors and the readout into the telescope.

Studies of an air-shower imaging system for the detection of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos

“…The photon sensors for Trinity have been baselined to be SiPMs, which have a spectral response that matches the red-peaking Cherenkov spectrum. Latest red-sensitive devices from Hamamatsu (S14420-3050WO-Resin) have peak PDEs of ∼ 45% at 600 nm [10]. For the amplification of the SiPM signals and the adjustment of the SiPM bias voltages, the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) MUSIC is a good choice [11].…”

“…A Cherenkov telescope camera that uses SiPMs, MUSIC, and the AGET system is presently under development for a balloon-borne Cherenkov telescope [10]. Figure 8 shows the setup to test the signal chain, and Figure 9 shows the amplitude response of the signal chain.…”

Search for Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays from Space -- The JEM-EUSO Program

“…A more performing optics (Schmidt camera) and a shorter temporal resolution of 1 µs will be used to lower the energy threshold of the instrument. The FS of the other telescope will be based on SiPMT sensors and a dedicated electronics to detect the Cherenkov emission in air by UHECR-generated EASs [32]. In perspective they will test the capability to detect EAS generated by ν τ interacting in the Earth crust [33].…”

The Data Processor of the EUSO-SPB2 Telescopes

“…The Cherenkov telescope focal surface will be covered by silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). They are coupled to 100 mega-samples per second switch capacitor array (SCA) of the AGET chip (ASIC for General Electronics for TPCs) An accurate description of the Cherenkov telescope is given in [7]. Even though the two telescopes have very different focal surfaces and readout electronics, they are connected to identical hardware and sensors as shown in Figure 1 Each telescope is equipped with GPS receivers (for redundancy) used to tag events with absolute time and position.…”