Special Astrophysics Seminar

High energy neutrino astronomy at the South Pole: Status and prospects

Hagar Landsman

Weizmann Institute

The ARA experiment (Askaryan Radio Array), currently under phased construction at the South Pole, is a new extremely-high energy neutrino telescope designed to be sensitive to the highest energy neutrinos beyond the reach of current neutrino detectors. In view of the successful completion of the ‘IceCube’ neutrino observatory, the science motivations for this new astrophysical neutrino detector will be discussed, and its design goals, construction status, expected performances and first results will be presented while emphasising the challenges in building a 100 km² detector in Antarctica.