Physics and Astronomy Calendar

No diffuse, extraterrestrial neutrino flux has yet been observed, but there is expected to be a near-guaranteed flux of neutrinos from interactions between the highest energy cosmic rays and cosmic microwave background photons. These neutrinos would carry information that would complement data from other cosmic messengers. The radio Cerenkov technique allows us to build experiments with effective detection volumes that exceed hundreds of km^3, the volume that is needed to be sensitive to the expected flux of neutrinos above 10^18 eV. The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) is a balloon experiment that aims to detect neutrinos deep in the Antarctic ice using this technique. ANITA just completed its first full physics flight this month. I will give an overview of the ANITA project, and discuss techniques that we are developing to improve our simulations of the detection system. I will then describe two next-generation radio detection experiments under development, one in a salt formation and another on the Antarctic Ross Ice Shelf, that are designed to move beyond the discovery stage and measure a sample of ultra-high energy neutrinos that is large enough to study their rich properties.