Abstract
We report on an upward traveling, radio-detected cosmic-ray-like impulsive event with characteristics closely matching an extensive air shower. This event, observed in the third flight of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), a NASA-sponsored long-duration balloon payload, is consistent with a similar event reported in a previous flight. These events could be produced by the atmospheric decay of an upward-propagating lepton produced by a interaction, although their relatively steep arrival angles create tension with the standard model neutrino cross section. Each of the two events have a posteriori background estimates of events. If these are generated by -lepton decay, then either the charged-current cross section is suppressed at EeV energies, or the events arise at moments when the peak flux of a transient neutrino source was much larger than the typical expected cosmogenic background neutrinos.
- Received 8 May 2018
- Revised 14 June 2018
- Corrected 16 June 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.161102
© 2018 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Corrections
16 June 2020
Correction: The name of the 33rd author was presented incorrectly and has been fixed.
Synopsis
ANITA Spots Another Inverted Cosmic-Ray-Like Event
Published 18 October 2018
A fountain of high-energy particles that resembles an upside-down cosmic-ray shower is detected for the second time by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna.
See more in Physics