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 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph.HE

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.121.161102

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 may 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 (SM) neutrino cross section. Each of the two events have a~posteriori background estimates of \lesssim 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
• Dark matter candidates and searches

Discussions

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

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