Astrophysics and Space Sciences Transactions

An Open Access Journal of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Extraterrestrische Forschung e.V.

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Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 8, 29-33, 2012
www.astrophys-space-sci-trans.net/8/29/2012/
doi:10.5194/astra-8-29-2012
© Author(s) 2012. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
 
22 Aug 2012
Constraints on ultra-high-energy neutrino flux from radio observations of the Moon
S. Buitink1,4, H. Falcke2,3, C. James2, M. Mevius4, O. Scholten4, K. Singh4,5, B. Stappers6, and S. ter Veen2
1Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
2Dept. of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
3ASTRON, P.O. Box 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
4KVI, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
5Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Dienst ELEM, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
6Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Univ. of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

Received: 16 Nov 2010 – Revised: 30 Jun 2011 – Accepted: 21 Sep 2011 – Published: 22 Aug 2012
Abstract. The NuMoon project aims to study ultra-high-energy neutrinos and cosmic rays by using radio telescopes to search for short pulses from the Moon. These pulses are created when a neutrino or cosmic ray impinges on the Moon and interacts below the lunar surface. Part of the energy is converted into a hadronic shower, which emits radio emission in a process known as the Askaryan effect. In the first phase of the NuMoon project, 46 hrs of data were collected with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in a low frequency band: 40–80 MHz. This resulted in an upper limit on the neutrino flux above 1022 eV which is an order of magnitude lower than previous limits. Additionally, an upper limit has been set on the ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray flux. The second phase of NuMoon will consist of observations with LOFAR.

Citation: Buitink, S., Falcke, H., James, C., Mevius, M., Scholten, O., Singh, K., Stappers, B., and ter Veen, S.: Constraints on ultra-high-energy neutrino flux from radio observations of the Moon, Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 8, 29-33, doi:10.5194/astra-8-29-2012, 2012.
 
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