Searching for ultra-high-energy neutrinos at the Pierre Auger Observatory

by Dr Cristina Galea (Radboud University)

Thursday 23 Apr 2026, 10:00 → 12:00 Europe/Berlin

Käthe-Kümmel-Str. 1/U1.059 (ROT) - Conference Room (ROT)

Abstract: 

The Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina is the world's largest cosmic ray detector. It measures the interactions in the atmosphere of extremely energetic particles coming often from other galaxies, with energies many orders of magnitude higher than those we can obtain on Earth. The sources and exact nature of these particles are still unknown, two of the persistent open questions in the field over the last decades. Contrary to these charged cosmic rays, neutrinos are not deflected by the galactic or extra-galactic magnetic fields and could directly point back to these sources. However, they interact very weakly, which makes their detection extremely difficult. Radio antennas have recently been installed on all the surface detectors of the observatory, and I will explain how we could use them to improve our chance to detect ultra-high-energy neutrinos for the very first time.

 

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