Observation of an Unusual Upward-going Cosmic-ray-like Event in the Third Flight of ANITA

P. W. Gorham , B. Rotter , P. Allison , O. Banerjee , L. Batten , J. J. Beatty , K. Bechtol , K. Belov

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D. Z. Besson W. R. Binns V. Bugaev P. Cao C. C. Chen C. H. Chen P. Chen J. M. Clem A. Connolly L. Cremonesi B. Dailey C. Deaconu P. F. Dowkontt B. D. Fox J. W. H. Gordon C. Hast B. Hill K. Hughes J. J. Huang R. Hupe M. H. Israel A. Javaid J. Lam K. M. Liewer S. Y. Lin T.C. Liu A. Ludwig L. Macchiarulo S. Matsuno C. Miki K. Mulrey J. Nam C. J. Naudet R. J. Nichol A. Novikov E. Oberla M. Olmedo R. Prechelt S. Prohira B. F. Rauch J. M. Roberts A. Romero-Wolf J. W. Russell D. Saltzberg D. Seckel H. Schoorlemmer J. Shiao S. Stafford J. Stockham M. Stockham B. Strutt G. S. Varner A. G. Vieregg S. H. Wang S. A. Wissel

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keywords eventeventsflightanitabackgroundcosmic-ray-likecrossdecay

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We report on an upward traveling, radio-detected cosmic-ray-like impulsive event with characteristics closely matching an extensive air shower. This event, observed in the third flight of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), a NASA-sponsored long-duration balloon payload, is consistent with a similar event reported in a previous flight. These events may be produced by the atmospheric decay of an upward-propagating $\tau$-lepton produced by a $\nu_{\tau}$ interaction, although their relatively steep arrival angles create tension with the standard model (SM) neutrino cross section. Each of the two events have $a~posteriori$ background estimates of $\lesssim 10^{-2}$ events. If these are generated by $\tau$-lepton decay, then either the charged-current $\nu_{\tau}$ cross section is suppressed at EeV energies, or the events arise at moments when the peak flux of a transient neutrino source was much larger than the typical expected cosmogenic background neutrinos.

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