(Edit: please see more recent articles here for more information about T-576)
The T-576 experiment at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory seeks to detect a radar scatter from a particle shower in a dense medium. The high-energy electron beam at SLAC is directed into a 4 m long plastic target, initiating a particle shower. The dense ionization electrons left behind should be dense enough to reflect transmitted radio-frequency energy (RF) to a distant receiver. The first run happened in May 2018, and the second run happened in October 2018.
Why perform this experiment?
The high energy electron beam at SLAC is a proxy for an ultra-high energy neutrino. The plastic target is a proxy for ice, for example, the ice in Antarcita. If validated, this technique can be used to detect the highest energy neutrinos in the universe, allowing physicists to study their properties, propagation, and maybe even their source.
The T-576 collaboration consists of members from the Ohio State University, IIHE/Vrije University Brussels, University of Kansas, UCLA, Cal-Poly, UW Madison, and National Tiawan University.
some papers on the radar method:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.02883
https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.05543
results from the first run:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.09914
Our first run found suggestion of an excess in the signal region at a significance of 2.3 sigma, as shown in the figure. more details on this analysis can be found in the above paper.
More information to follow as the analysis of run-2 data is performed.