Moonraker (harvesting higher energetic cosmic rays)

Citius, Altius, Fortius : the motto of particle physics?

Robert Oppenheimer showed the way ;-)

Robert Oppenheimer, 1958
“At the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Dr J Robert Oppenheimer jumped for me, the arm outstretched and the hand extended toward the ceiling. ‘What do you read in my jump?’ he asked,” wrote Halsman. “’Your hand pointed upward,’ I hazarded, ‘maybe you were trying to show a new direction, a new objective.’” But the theoretical physicist denied any symbolism. “’No,’ said Dr Oppenheimer, laughing, ‘I was simply reaching.’” (Credit: Philippe Halsman/Magnum Photos)

There might be no sign of new physics beyond the standard model below 10²⁰ eV and the neutrino particle sector appears to be the first (most reliable?) available solid experimental window through the unknown. The Ice Cube experiment encompassing a cubic kilometer of ice provided the first evidence for cosmogenic neutrinos (the specific sources have not been clearly identified yet). As the sensitivity of neutrino detectors roughly scales with their volume one can wonder what could be the expectation for a detector the size of the Moon? Huge one can guess...

The lunar Askaryan technique is a method to study the highest-energy cosmic rays, and their predicted counterparts, the ultra-high-energy neutrinos. By observing the Moon with a radio telescope, and searching for the characteristic nanosecond-scale Askaryan pulses emitted when a high-energy particle interacts in the outer layers of the Moon, the visible lunar surface can be used as a detection area. Several previous experiments, at Parkes, Goldstone, Kalyazin, Westerbork, the ATCA, Lovell, LOFAR, and the VLA, have developed the necessary techniques to search for these pulses, but existing instruments have lacked the necessary sensitivity to detect the known flux of cosmic rays from such a distance. This will change with the advent of the Square Kilometre Array. The SKA will be the world’s most powerful radio telescope. To be built in southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand during the next decade, it will have an unsurpassed sensitivity over the key 100 MHz to few-GHZ band. We introduce a planned experiment to use the SKA to observe the highest-energy cosmic rays and, potentially, neutrinos. The estimated event rate will be presented, along with the predicted energy and directional resolution. Prospects for directional studies with phase 1 of the SKA will be discussed, as will the major technical challenges to be overcome to make full use of this powerful instrument. Finally, we show how phase 2 of the SKA could provide a vast increase in the number of detected cosmic rays at the highest energies, and thus to provide new insight into their spectrum and origin.

Projected 90%-confidence limits on the ultra high energy (UHE) neutrino flux from 1,000 hours of observations of the Square kilometer area (SKA) radio telescope. Predictions are shown for neutrino fluxes from the so-called “top-down models" involving the production of UHE neutrinos in the Early Universe from kinks (Lunardini & Sabancilar (2012), dash-dotted) and cusps (Berezinsky et al. (2011), dot-dash-dotted) in cosmic strings, and also for the neutrino flux produced in interactions of UHE cosmic-rays with the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation - “cosmogenic neutrinos" (Allard et al. (2006), shaded). Limits set by other experiments - the Pierre Auger Observatory (Aab et al. 2015), RICE (Kravchenko et al. 2012) and ANITA (Gorham et al. 2010, 2012) - are also shown.

 The lunar Askaryan technique with the Square Kilometre Array

Clancy W. James, Jaime Alvarez-Muniz, Justin D. Bray, Stijn Buitink, Rustam D. Dagkesamanskii, Ronald D. Ekers, Heino Falcke, Ken G. Gayley, Tim Huege, Maaijke Mevius, Robert L. Mutel, Raymond J. Protheroe, Olaf Scholten, Ralph E. Spencer, Sander ter Veen (Submitted on 8 Aug 2016)

The problem of searching for highest-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos in the Universe is reviewed. Possibilities for using the radio method for detecting particles of energies above the Greisen–Zatsepin–Kuzmin (GZK) cut-off are analyzed. The method is based on the registration of coherent Cherenkov radio emission produced by cascades of most energetic particles in radio-transparent lunar regolith. The Luna-26 space mission to be launched in the nearest future involves the Lunar Orbital Radio Detector (LORD). The potentialities of the LORD space instrument to detect radio signals from showers initiated by ultrahigh-energy particles interacting with lunar regolith are examined. The comprehensive Monte Carlo calculations were carried out within the energy range of 10²⁰ to 10²⁵ eV with the account for physical properties of the Moon such as its density, lunar-regolith radiation length, radio-wave absorption length, refraction index, reflection from the lower regolith boundary, and orbit altitude of a lunar satellite. The design of the LORD space instrument and its scientific potentialities for registration of low-intense cosmic-ray particle fluxes of energies above the GZK cut-off up to 10²⁵ eV are discussed, as well. The designed LORD module (including the antenna, amplification, and data-acquisition systems) now is under construction. The LORD space experiment will make it possible to obtain important information on the highest-energy particles in the Universe, to verify modern models for the origin and the propagation of ultrahigh-energy particles. It is expected that the LORD space experiment will surpass in its apertures and detection capability the majority of well-known current and proposed experiments that deal with the detection of both ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos. The future prospects in the study of ultrahigh-energy particles by orbital radio detectors are also considered, namely, a multi-satellite lunar systems and space missions to largest ice planets of the solar system.

Prospects for ultrahigh-energy particle observation based on the lunar orbital LORD space experiment  Dr. Vladimir Ryabov (1 August 2015)

The Moon provides a huge effective detector volume for ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrinos, which generate coherent radio pulses in the lunar surface layer due to the Askaryan effect. In light of presently considered lunar missions, we propose radio measurements from a Moon-orbiting satellite. First systematic Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate the detectability of Askaryan pulses from neutrinos with energies above 10²⁰ eV, i.e. near and above the interesting GZK limit, at the very low fluxes predicted in different scenarios.

E²-weighted flux of ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrinos (UHECν). Solid (color) curves show the projected detection limits from Eq. (4), based on one year of satellite measurements with a beam-filling antenna for frequencies of 100 MHz (lower set of curves) and 1000 MHz (upper set of curves). Within each set, the curves from top to bottom are for satellite altitudes H of 100, 250 and 1000 km, respectively. Dashed lines show predicted fluxes from the GZK process [3] (consistent with the Waxman-Bahcall bound 5×10^-8 [33]), Z-bursts and Topological Defects (TD) [30]. Thin solid lines show current flux limits from ANITA-lite [9], RICE [34], GLUE [15] and FORTE [28]. Dotted lines show predicted sensitivities for ANITA [9], LOFAR [17] and LORD [18].

Prospects for Lunar Satellite Detection of Radio Pulses from Ultrahigh Energy Neutrinos Interacting with the Moon

O. Stål, J.E.S. Bergman, B. Thidé, L.K.S. Daldorff, G. Ingelman

(Submitted on 10 Apr 2006 (v1), last revised 15 Feb 2007 (this version, v2))