Optimizing Gravitational Wave Follow-up with Balloon-Based Neutrino Detectors

Luke Kupari

High Energy neutrinos are crucial to the field of multi-messenger astronomy. Their neutral charge means they propagate through the universe without deflection they therefore give us a reliable way to study the sources that accelerate particles to the highest energies in the universe. The advent of balloon-based neutrino telescopes such as ANITA, EUSO-SPB2, and PBR gives us a unique chance to detect these elusive particles. Sources that are expected to accelerate particles to these high energies are also expected to have gravitational wave signals. From these gravitational wave signals, LIGO provides approximate localization regions, which vary significantly in size and shape, complicating precise pointing strategies. To address these challenges, I have developed a pointing optimization algorithm in the Neutrino Target Scheduler (NuTs), a software package developed to schedule observations for balloon-based neutrino telescopes. This algorithm handles the irregular shapes and sizes of these localization regions by prioritizing areas with the highest probability, while accounting for the complex constraints of these telescopes. This work enhances our capability to capture coincident neutrino-gravitational wave events, potentially advancing our understanding of extreme cosmic accelerators such as binary neutron star mergers and black hole collisions.