Speaker
Description
The Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics Balloon with Radio (PBR) is a proposed mission that will fly on a NASA Super pressure Balloon in 2027 from Wanaka, New Zealand. The PBR optical design consists of a 1.1 m aperture Schmidt telescope with a primary mirror of roughly 2m by 2m and a radius of curvature of 1.6m. The hybrid focal surface is made of a fluorescent camera (FC) and a Cherenkov camera (CC). The FC observes Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR, E> 10^18eV)-induced EASs in the ultraviolet (UV) using an array of Multi-Anode Photo-Multiplier Tubes (MAPMTs) imaged every 1 μs; the CC uses a 2048-pixel Silicon Photo-Multiplier (SiPM) imager in a spectral range of 320-900nm with an integration time of 10 ns to observe PeV-airshowers via their Cherenkov emission. In addition, PBR has a Radio Instrument (RI) for the detection of EASs (covering the 50-500 MHz range). PBR has 3 main scientific objectives: to observe UHECRs via the fluorescence technique from suborbital space; to observe horizontal high-altitude air showers (HAHAs) with energies above the cosmic ray knee (E>0.5 PeV) using the optical and radio detection for the first time and to follow astrophysical event alerts in the search of Very High Energy Neutrinos (VHENs E>10^15). This overview will provide a summary of the mission and the current status of PBR.
