Observation of Radar Echoes from High-Energy Particle Cascades

We report here the observation of radar echoes from the ionization trails of high-energy particle cascades. Data were taken at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where the full electron beam ( ~109e- at ~10GeV/e- ) was directed into a plastic target to simulate an ultrahigh-energy neutrino in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2020-03, Vol.124 (9)
Main Authors: Prohira, S., de Vries, K. D., Allison, P., Beatty, J., Besson, D., Connolly, A., van Eijndhoven, N., Hast, C., Kuo, C. -Y., Latif, U. A., Meures, T., Nam, J., Nozdrina, A., Ralston, J. P., Riesen, Z., Sbrocco, C., Torres, J., Wissel, S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
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Summary:We report here the observation of radar echoes from the ionization trails of high-energy particle cascades. Data were taken at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where the full electron beam ( ~109e- at ~10GeV/e- ) was directed into a plastic target to simulate an ultrahigh-energy neutrino interaction. The target was interrogated with radio waves, and coherent radio reflections from the cascades were detected with properties consistent with theoretical expectations. This is the first definitive observation of radar echoes from high-energy particle cascades, which could lead to a viable neutrino detection technology for energies ≳1016eV .
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114