Sensitivity Estimates of Mountain-Top Neutrino Telescopes

High-energy neutrinos can be used to probe astrophysics and particle physics at the highest energies. On a high-elevation mountain, we have two options for detection: optical and radio emissions. We specifically consider tau neutrinos, which, at the highest energies, skim the Earth's surface and interact, allowing for the production of an extended (km-scale) shower of particles in the air. Many proposed experiments seek to observe these showers through direct detection of the secondaries in the shower as well as the emission they produce, including radio, fluorescence, and optical Cherenkov.

In this work, we compare optical and radio detectors by providing an independent calculation of a generic detector concept that looks for optical Cherenkov from a high-elevation mountain. We calculate its sensitivity to tau neutrinos using the EASCherSim optical Cherenkov simulation and the POINSSETA monte carlo simulation code for tau neutrino-induced air showers. We present different sensitivity curves for the detector under the assumption of various photoelectron thresholds and trigger considerations of the telescope using this framework and discuss the future of the experiment in the context of high-energy neutrino astrophysics.