Development of a scintillation and radio hybrid detector array at the South Pole

Abstract

At the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a Surface Array Enhancement is planned, consisting of 32 hybrid stations, placed within the current IceTop footprint. This surface enhancement will considerably increase the detection sensitivity to cosmic rays in the 100 TeV to 1 EeV primary energy range, measure the effects of snow accumulation on the existing IceTop tanks and serve as R&D for the possible future large-scale surface array of IceCube-Gen2. Each station has one central hybrid DAQ, which reads out 8 scintillation detectors and 3 radio antennas. The radio antenna SKALA-2 is used in this array due to its low-noise, high amplification and sensitivity in the 70-350 MHz frequency band. Every scintillation detector has an active area of 1.5 m 2 organic plastic scintillators connected by wavelength-shifting fibers, which are connected to a silicon photomultiplier. The signals from the scintillation detectors are integrated and digitized by a local custom electronics board and transferred to the central DAQ. When triggered by the scintillation detectors, the filtered and amplified analog waveforms from the radio antennas are read out and digitized by the central DAQ. A full prototype station has been developed and built and was installed at the South Pole in January 2020. It is planned to install the full array by 2026. In this contribution the hardware design of the array as well as the installation plans will be presented.

Cosmic ray measurements with IceCube and IceTop

“…In the future, new scintillator and radio detectors at the surface will further improve the capabilities for cosmic ray measurements in IceCube [26]. In addition, the construction of a new surface array is planned in the context of IceCube-Gen2 [27].…”

Study of the Uncertainties of the Galactic Radio Background as a Calibration Source for Radio Arrays

“…In the next step, we switch from a global point of view to the specific cases of selected radio arrays. The chosen arrays, which are -amongst other things -used in studies of astroparticle physics, are RNO-G (surface antennas) [20], LOFAR [21], GRAND [22], SKA-low [23], the Pierre Auger Observatory (AERA [24] and the AugerPrime Radio Detector [25]), and the radio antennas of the IceCube surface array [26].…”

Advancing the Landscape of Multimessenger Science in the Next Decade

“…A combination of elevated scintillation and radio detectors would enable high measurement accuracy of air showers. Together with the surface detector enhancement presently underway for IceTop [885] the IceCube-Gen2 surface array aims to cover an area of about 6 km 2 .…”