Observation of an Unusual Upward-Going Cosmic-Ray-like Event in the Third Flight of ANITA

2018/03/14 by P. W. Gorham, P. W. Gorham, B. Rotter +104 · 1 voice · 138 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #COSMIC cancer database #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Event (particle physics) #Nuclear physics #Physics #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph.HE

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.121.161102

published in Physical Review Letters 121(16), 161102 (American Physical Society) · 5 pages, 4 figures. Supplemental material available from corresponding author by request

arxiv created 2018/03/14 · arxiv published 2018/03/14 · openalex publication_date 2018/10/18 · arxiv updated 2018/10/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

We report on an upward traveling, radio-detected cosmic-ray-like impulsive event with characteristics closely matching an extensive air shower. This event, observed in the third flight of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), a NASA-sponsored long-duration balloon payload, is consistent with a similar event reported in a previous flight. These events could be produced by the atmospheric decay of an upward-propagating τ lepton produced by a ν_τ interaction, although their relatively steep arrival angles create tension with the standard model neutrino cross section. Each of the two events have a posteriori background estimates of ≲10^-2 events. If these are generated by τ-lepton decay, then either the charged-current ν_τ cross section is suppressed at EeV energies, or the events arise at moments when the peak flux of a transient neutrino source was much larger than the typical expected cosmogenic background neutrinos.

Cited by

• Four, One, and None: Quantifying the Ultra-High-Energy Neutrino Anomaly Across ANITA-IV, KM3NeT, and IceCube
• Particle Astrophysics with High and Ultrahigh Energy Neutrinos
• Atmospheric pion, kaon, and muon fluxes for sub-orbital experiments
• Recent Results from ANITA
• Dark Matter Candidates and Searches
• Beyond standard model particles in the atmospheric flux: a long-lived stau example
• `Dark' Matter Effect as a Novel Solution to the KM3-230213A Puzzle
• From oversimplified to overlooked: the case for exploring Rich Dark Sectors
• A Possible Solution to the Mystery of the ANITA Anomalous Events
• Explaining the ANITA events by a Le−Lτ gauge model
• Comprehensive analysis of anomalous ANITA events disfavors a diffuse tau-neutrino flux origin
• Case for decaying spin-3/2 dark matter
• Prospects for high-elevation radio detection of 0>10 PeV tau neutrinos
• Leptoquark solution for both the flavor and ANITA anomalies
• Looking at the axionic dark sector with ANITA
• Cosmogenic photon and neutrino fluxes in the Auger era

Discussions

• Je crois que l'article original c'est ça arxiv.org/abs/1803.05088 [bsky, 3 points, 2 comments]

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