Radio Detection of Cosmic Neutrinos in Salt Mines

Neutrinos were postulated by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 to fully explain the beta decay. All three neutrino types were detected in laboratory experiments only 70 years (and a Nobel Prize) later. These tiny particles can oscillate between the three flavors and their mass is still unknown. The detection of cosmic neutrinos is a subject under study for more than 20 years. Nevertheless, many neutrino telescopes have not discovered any particle. The latest observation technique is the radio detection of the electromagnetic emission resulted from neutrino s interaction on Earth. A neutrino radio-detector is usually built in a cubic kilometer geological formation. It uses natural media that are transparent for radiowaves, such as polar ice or salt from salt mines (as in Romania). Best to our knowledge, work presented in this manuscript represents the only running project worldwide that studies the possibility to detect neutrinos indirectly, by radio fields measurements.

Autorentext

Alina-Mihaela Badescu has obtained her M.Sc. degreein Radio and Optical Telecommunications in 2006 andin 2008 - in Radio Astronomy. In 2011 she obtainedher PhD degree in radio detection of astroparticles.She has worked in several research projects in thefield of radio detection and telecommunications. Sheis the author of several articles.