Improved flux limits for neutrinos with energies above 10(22) eV from observations with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope

General description of electromagnetic radiation processes based on instantaneous charge acceleration in "endpoints"

We present a methodology for calculating the electromagnetic radiation from accelerated charged particles. Our formulation-the "endpoint formulation"-combines numerous results developed in the literature in relation to radiation arising from particle acceleration using a complete, and completely general, treatment. We do this by describing particle motion via a series of discrete, instantaneous acceleration events, or "endpoints," with each such event being treated as a source of emission. This method implicitly allows for particle creation and destruction, and is suited to direct numerical implementation in either the time or frequency domains. In this paper we demonstrate the complete generality of our method for calculating the radiated field from charged particle acceleration, and show how it reduces to the classical named radiation processes such as synchrotron, Tamm's description of Vavilov-Cherenkov, and transition radiation under appropriate limits. Using this formulation, we are immediately able to answer outstanding questions regarding the phenomenology of radio emission from ultra-high-energy particle interactions in both the earth's atmosphere and the moon. In particular, our formulation makes it apparent that the dominant emission component of the Askaryan effect (coherent radio-wave radiation from high-energy particle cascades in dense media) comes from coherent "bremsstrahlung" from particle acceleration, rather than coherent Vavilov-Cherenkov radiation.

High-energy neutrino astronomy: detection methods and first achievements

In the last century, astronomy evolved from optical observation to the multi-wavelength study of celestial objects from radio waves up to x- and γ-rays, leading to a wealth of new discoveries and opening the way to high-energy astroparticle physics. In particular, the recent success of ground-based very-high-energy γ-ray telescopes has opened a new window on the most powerful and violent objects of the Universe, giving a new insight into the physical processes at work in such sources. In the context of high-energy astronomy, neutrinos constitute a unique probe since they escape from their sources, travel undisturbed on virtually cosmological distances and are produced in high-energy hadronic processes. In particular they would allow a direct detection and unambiguous identification of the sites of acceleration of high-energy baryonic cosmic rays, which remain unknown. This report discusses the physics potential of the domain and reviews the experimental techniques relevant for the detection of high-energy (⩾TeV) neutrinos. The results obtained by the first generation of such detectors are presented, along with the perspectives opened by new projects and prototypes being currently developed.