Description

An electron-photon shower evolving in a dense dielectric medium creates a negative charge excess which causes coherent amplification of the radiated emission from this uncompensated charge in the radio band (Askarayan effect). Such showers may be produced by the weak interaction of neutrinos with matter. In the thesis the student shall learn about the Askarayan effect and present its theoretical derivation, its experimental verification and its potential as a method to detect extraterrestrial neutrinos as used presently in a number of detectors (e.g., GLUE, ANITA, LUNASKA, ...). The student will need to have some good knowledge about electrodynamics and Cherenkov radiation, and basics in particle physics and relativity.