CCAPP Fellow and OSU President's Postdoctoral Scholar:
Steven Prohira
Observation of Radar Echoes from Ultra-High Energy Particle Cascades: Toward Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Astronomy at 10 PeV and Beyond
Neutrinos with energies above 1016 electron volts have yet to be detected, but offer great opportunities for discovery, uniquely probing astrophysical sources at the highest energies and greatest distances. I am leading work to develop a new technique - using radar - to detect these neutrinos when they interact in ice. In this talk I will detail our recent, OSU-led test beam experiment at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory where our collaboration made the first definitive observation of a radar echo from an electron-beam induced particle cascade. This observation - along with our current efforts toward an in-nature prototype station described here for the first time - may lead to a new neutrino detection technology for energies unreachable by current techniques.