Speaker
Description
Planned to fly the Austral summer of 2025, the Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) is a balloon experiment built to search for Askaryan emission from showers from > EeV neutrinos and air showers from ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). The instrument is designed to maximize sensitivity to these signals while rejecting backgrounds. The payload includes two instruments: the Main Instrument, boasting 96 quad-ridge horn antennas, and the Low-Frequency Instrument, comprising 8 sinuous antennas. Radio signals are measured in both polarizations per antenna, conditioned, and then sent to the DAQ system for triggering and readout before being saved to disk. PUEO’s design must also be within the power, weight, and telemetry constraints for long duration ballooning. This talk will present the design of PUEO in the context of measuring the science signals of interest and the current hardware being built for its 2025 launch.
