This project will develop advanced broadband radio receivers and antennas to be buried in the ice below South Pole Station for detecting the interaction of ultra-high energy (PeV) astrophysical neutrinos with nuclei in the ice. Ultra-high energy, with energies exceeding 1015 eV, could be used to discover the sources of the very highest energy cosmic rays, the source of which is a long standing open question. The radio detection technique is complementary to the more common detection of light produced by high energy particles because the optical techniques begin to lose sensitivity at the ultra-high energies near the threshold for the radio technique. From there on up in energy, the sensitivity of the radio detectors is expected to increase dramatically. This rising sensitivity with energy works well with the steeply declining flux of cosmic rays. The University of Kansas the leading institution in the development of these detectors in the United States.
