AURA-A radio frequency extension to IceCube

The excellent radio frequency (RF) transparency of cold polar ice, combined with the coherent Cherenkov emission produced by neutrino-induced showers when viewed at wavelengths longer than a few centimeters, has spurred considerable interest in a large-scale radio-wave neutrino detector array. The AURA (Askaryan Under-ice Radio Array) experimental effort, within the IceCube collaboration, seeks to take advantage of the opportunity presented by IceCube [A. Karle, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A (2009), this issue, doi:10.1016/j.nima.2009.03.180. [1]; A. Achtenberg et al., The IceCube Collaboration, Astropart. Phys. 26 (2006) 155 [2]] drilling through 2010 to establish the RF technology needed to achieve 100-1000km3 effective volumes. In the 2006-2007 Austral summer, three deep in-ice RF clusters were deployed at depths of ∼1300 and ∼300m on top of the IceCube strings. Additional three clusters will be deployed in the Austral summer of 2008-2009. Verification and calibration results from the current deployed clusters are presented, and the detector design and performances are discussed. Augmentation of IceCube with large-scale (1000km3sr) radio and acoustic arrays would extend the physics reach of IceCube into the EeV-ZeV regime and offer substantial technological redundancy.