Speaker
Description
The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) is a balloon-borne experiment that is designed to achieve world-leading sensitivity to ultrahigh energy (>1 EeV) astrophysical and cosmic neutrinos. Neutrino observations at this energy would provide valuable insights into both astrophysical sources and fundamental physics at extreme-energy scales. To do this, PUEO will leverage the Askaryan effect to observe the radio signals generated by neutrino interactions in the Antarctic ice. The payload’s design builds on that of the four successful flights of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) balloon program. Improvements implemented in PUEO’s design include the use of a phased-array trigger, real-time digital filtering, more antennas with longer baselines, and a dedicated low-frequency instrument, amongst others. PUEO is now under construction, and is scheduled to fly over Antarctica in late 2025. In this talk I will discuss PUEO’s science goals, the PUEO instrument, and the project timeline.
