A: The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) long-duration balloon experiment is designed to have world-leading sensitivity to ultrahigh-energy neutrinos at energies above 1 EeV. Probing this energy region is essential for understanding the extreme-energy universe at all distance scales. PUEO leverages experience from and supersedes the successful Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) program, with an improved design that drastically improves sensitivity by more than an order of magnitude at energies below 30 EeV. PUEO will either make the first significant detection of or set the best limits on ultrahigh-energy neutrino fluxes. K: Balloon instrumentation; Large detector systems for particle and astroparticle physics; Neutrino detectors A X P : 2010.02892

We study in detail the sensitivity of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) to possible ν τ point source fluxes detected via τ-lepton-induced air showers. This investigation is framed around the observation of four upward-going extensive air shower events very close to the horizon seen in ANITA-IV. We find that these four upgoing events are not observationally inconsistent with τ-induced EASs from Earth-skimming ν τ both in their spectral properties as well as in their observed locations on the sky. These four events as well as the overall diffuse and point source exposure to Earth-skimming ν τ are also compared against published ultrahigh-energy neutrino limits from the Pierre Auger Observatory. While none of these four events occurred at sky locations simultaneously visible by Auger, the implied fluence necessary for ANITA to observe these events is in strong tension with limits set by Auger across a wide range of energies

When Earth-skimming tau neutrinos interact within the Earth, they generate upgoing tau leptons that can decay in the atmosphere, forming extensive air showers. The Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON) is a novel detector concept that utilizes a radio interferometer atop a mountain to search for the radio emission due to these extensive air showers. The prototype, located at the White Mountain Research Station in California, consists of 4 crossed-dipole antennas operating in the 30-80 MHz range and uses a directional interferometric trigger for reduced thresholds and background rejection. The prototype will first be used to detect down-going cosmic rays to validate the detector model. A Monte-Carlo simulation was developed to predict the acceptance of the prototype to cosmic rays, as well as the expected rate of detection. In this simulation, cosmic ray induced air showers with random properties are generated in an area around the prototype array. It is then determined if a given shower triggers the array using radio emission simulations from ZHAireS and antenna modelling from XFdtd. Here, we present the methodology and results of this simulation.

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The Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON) is a concept for a neutrino telescope designed to measure tau lepton air showers generated from tau neutrino interactions near the horizon. This detection mechanism provides a pure measurement of the tau flavor of cosmogenic neutrinos, which could be used to set limits on the observed flavor ratios for cosmogenic neutrinos in a manner complimentary to the all-flavor neutrino flux measurements made by other experiments. BEACON is expected to also be capable of detecting cosmic rays through RF-only triggers. BEACON aims to achieve this sensitivity by using mountaintop radio arrays of dual-polarized antennas operating in the 30-80 MHz band which utilize directional interferometric triggering. BEACON stations are designed to efficiently use a small amount of instrumentation, allowing for deployment in a variety of high-elevation sites. The interferometric trigger provides a natural tool for directional-based anthropogenic RFI rejection at the trigger level, broadening the list for potential station sites. The BEACON prototype has seen continuous design advancements towards improving the mechanical durability and scientific capabilities since its initial deployment at White Mountain Research Station in 2018. Here we present the current prototype's sensitivity to RF-triggered cosmic-ray background signals. We also present the next generation prototype, which includes scintillating cosmic ray detectors, improved antennas, and refined calibration techniques.