Nick van Eijndhoven

The cosmic-ray air-shower signal in Askaryan radio detectors

We discuss the radio emission from high-energy cosmic-ray induced air showers hitting Earths surface before the cascade has died out in the atmosphere. The induced emission gives rise to a radio signal which should be detectable in the currently operating Askaryan radio detectors built to search for the GZK neutrino flux in ice. The in-air emission, the in-ice emission, as well as a new component, the coherent transition radiation when the particle bunch crosses the air-ice boundary, are included in the calculations.

Towards the sensitivity for the radar scattering technique to probe neutrino induced particle cascades in ice: The radar cross-section

We discuss the feasibility of the radar detection technique to probe high-energy neutrino-induced particle cascades in ice. The properties of the plasma which is created when a high-energy neutrino-induced particle cascade traverses the medium are modeled in detail for random scattering geometries. This allows us to model the radar scattering cross section for generic cases, where previously our results were based on an empirical thin-wire approximation.

Evaluation of expected solar flare neutrino events in the IceCube observatory

Since the end of the eighties and in response to a reported increase in the total neutrino flux in the Homestake experiment in coincidence with a solar flare, solar neutrino detectors have searched for solar flare signals. Neutrinos from the decay of mesons, which are themselves produced in collisions of accelerated protons with the solar atmosphere, would provide a novel window on the underlying physics of the acceleration process. For our studies we focus on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a cubic kilometer neutrino detector located at the geographical South Pole. Due to its Supernova data acquisition system and its DeepCore component, dedicated to low energy neutrinos, IceCube may be sensitive to solar flare neutrinos and thus permit either a measurement of the signal or the establishment of more stringent upper limits on the solar flare neutrino flux. We present an approach for a time profile analysis based on a stacking method and an evaluation of a possible solar flare signal in IceCube using the Geant4 toolkit.