GRAND plans for new neutrino observatory – Physics World
GRAND plans: a radio view of high-energy neutrinos A novel radio telescope, currently being designed by scientists in France, China and other countries, could shed light on some of the most violent cosmic phenomena in the universe. If built, the so-called Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND) – comprising hundreds of thousands of antennas spread over an area just slightly smaller than the UK – would detect extremely high-energy neutrinos originating from deep space. According to the researchers, GRAND would be considerably cheaper to build than rival telescopes based on optical technology. Rather than detecting light, GRAND will pick up radio signals – because radio antennas are cheaper to make than their optical equivalents, a much larger detector can be built. Its design is such that about 100 ”cosmogenic” neutrinos – those generated by cosmic rays as they interact with the cosmic microwave background on their journey to Earth and which, having an energy of about 1017 eV, are probably out of IceCube’s reach – should be detected yearly.