TY - JOUR
T1 - Design and initial performance of the prototype for the BEACON instrument for detection of ultrahigh energy particles
AU - Southall, Dan
AU - Deaconu, Cosmin
AU - Decoene, Valentin
AU - Oberla, Eric
AU - Zeolla, Andrew
AU - Alvarez-Muñiz, Jaime
AU - Cummings, Austin
AU - Curtis-Ginsberg, Zach
AU - Hendrick, Angus
AU - Hughes, Kaeli
AU - Krebs, Ryan
AU - Ludwig, Andrew
AU - Mulrey, Katharine
AU - Prohira, Steven
AU - Carvalho, Washington Rodrigues de
AU - Rodriguez, Andres
AU - Romero-Wolf, Andres
AU - Schoorlemmer, Harm
AU - Vieregg, Abigail G.
AU - Wissel, Stephanie A.
AU - Zas, Enrique
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/3
Y1 - 2023/3
N2 - The Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON) is a planned neutrino telescope designed to detect radio emission from upgoing air showers generated by ultrahigh energy tau neutrino interactions in the Earth. This detection mechanism provides a measurement of the tau flux of cosmic neutrinos. We have installed an 8-channel prototype instrument at high elevation at Barcroft Field Station, which has been running since 2018, and consists of 4 dual-polarized antennas sensitive between 30–80 MHz, whose signals are filtered, amplified, digitized, and saved to disk using a custom data acquisition system (DAQ). The BEACON prototype is at high elevation to maximize effective volume and uses a directional beamforming trigger to improve rejection of anthropogenic background noise at the trigger level. Here we discuss the design, construction, and calibration of the BEACON prototype instrument. We also discuss the radio frequency environment observed by the instrument, and categorize the types of events seen by the instrument, including a likely cosmic ray candidate event.
AB - The Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON) is a planned neutrino telescope designed to detect radio emission from upgoing air showers generated by ultrahigh energy tau neutrino interactions in the Earth. This detection mechanism provides a measurement of the tau flux of cosmic neutrinos. We have installed an 8-channel prototype instrument at high elevation at Barcroft Field Station, which has been running since 2018, and consists of 4 dual-polarized antennas sensitive between 30–80 MHz, whose signals are filtered, amplified, digitized, and saved to disk using a custom data acquisition system (DAQ). The BEACON prototype is at high elevation to maximize effective volume and uses a directional beamforming trigger to improve rejection of anthropogenic background noise at the trigger level. Here we discuss the design, construction, and calibration of the BEACON prototype instrument. We also discuss the radio frequency environment observed by the instrument, and categorize the types of events seen by the instrument, including a likely cosmic ray candidate event.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.nima.2022.167889
DO - 10.1016/j.nima.2022.167889
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85146686707
SN - 0168-9002
VL - 1048
JO - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
M1 - 167889
ER -