Permafrost—An alternative target material for ultra-high energy neutrino detection?

The interest in the detection of cosmic neutrinos with energies above 1017 eV has increased considerably in recent years. Possible target materials for in-matter arrays of ∼100 km3 size under discussion are water, ice and rock salt. Here we propose to investigate permafrost as an additional alternative, covering ∼20% of Earth land surface and reaching down to more than 1000 m depth at certain locations. If sufficiently large attenuation lengths for radio and acoustic signals can be demonstrated by in-situ measurements, the construction of a large hybrid array within this material may be possible in the Northern Hemisphere. Properties and problems of a possible location in Siberia are discussed below. Some acoustic data are compared with laboratory measurements using “artificial” permafrost.