Abstract
NuRadioMC is a Monte Carlo framework designed to simulate ultra-high energy neutrino detectors that rely on the radio detection method. This method exploits the radio emission generated in the electromagnetic component of a particle shower following a neutrino interaction. NuRadioMC simulates everything from the neutrino interaction in a medium, the subsequent Askaryan radio emission, the propagation of the radio signal to the detector and finally the detector response. NuRadioMC is designed as a modern, modular Python-based framework, combining flexibility in detector design with user-friendliness. It includes a state-of-the-art event generator, an improved modelling of the radio emission, a revisited approach to signal propagation and increased flexibility and precision in the detector simulation. This paper focuses on the implemented physics processes and their implications for detector design. A variety of models and parameterizations for the radio emission of neutrino-induced showers are compared and reviewed. Comprehensive examples are used to discuss the capabilities of the code and different aspects of instrumental design decisions.
Highlights
High-energy neutrino astronomy is a most promising approach to address the still unanswered question of the origin of high-energy cosmic rays [1]
For NuRadioMC, the time-domain signal based on Alvarez2000 and Alvarexz2009 is generated by taking the simple approximation of a phase that is constant with frequency and equal to 90◦, yielding a bipolar pulse in the time domain
The model captures subtle features of the cascades like sub-showers and accounts for stochastic fluctuations in the shower development which can alter the Askaryan signal amplitudes significantly. This model is the most accurate treatment of Askaryan radiation implemented in NuRadioMC, but it comes at the expense of larger computation times as it involves computationally expensive convolutions of the Askaryan vector-potential with Monte-Carlo generated cascade profiles
Summary
High-energy neutrino astronomy is a most promising approach to address the still unanswered question of the origin of high-energy cosmic rays [1]. Because they have negligible mass, are electrically neutral and have an extremely low interaction probability, they traverse the universe essentially unimpeded and point directly back to their sources. Measuring neutrinos requires the instrumentation of large volumes to observe sufficient target material in which a rare interaction of these particles may occur. The largest detector having observed neutrinos is IceCube, which uses the Antarctic ice as a target medium and instruments it with optical sensors [2]
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