Simulating the Effective Area of RNO-G to Cosmic Ray Air Showers

The Radio Neutrino Observatory – Greenland (RNO-G) is an experiment aiming to detect neutrino interactions using radio antennas within polar ice. These ultra-high-energy neutrinos initiate particle showers in the ice, which emits radio pulses that can be detected. The most dominant antenna backgrounds for detecting neutrinos are thermal radiation as well as galactic noise, but the removal of these backgrounds does not prove to be excessively challenging. On the other hand, cosmic rays produce radio signals similar to those expected for neutrinos. To improve cosmic ray background removal, it is necessary to understand the effective area and event rate expected for cosmic rays. In this study, we simulate in-air radio emission from cosmic rays and propagate this signal to the deep in-ice antennas of the RNO-G experiment using a realistic glaciologically-motivated index of refraction profile. Now, using the NuRadioMC and RadioPropa python packages, the electric field trace from the radio emission is simulated from air showers with varying zenith angles and energies. From there, we carry out a Monte Carlo integration of the effective area to in-air emission from cosmic rays detected by the deep in-ice antennas of RNO-G and estimate the expected cosmic ray event rate in these channels.