Group presented at INSS 2012, Virginia, USA

1. NEUTRINO COMMUNICATION
FOR INSIDER TRADING
Son Cao, Gareth Kafka, Tianlu Yuan
1

2. OUTLINE
 Goals, Motivation
 Background
 Information Considerations
 Beam Considerations
 Quaternary System
 Conclusions
2

3. GOALS AND QUESTIONS
 How can we use neutrinos to communicate faster than
fiber optics?
 What types of beam source and detector are used?
 How should the information (beam) be structured?
3

4. MOTIVATION
 Neutrino speed ~c,
fiber optical ~2/3 c
 Time saving:
1 ms is a long
time for traders
 Wireless: no long
fiber cable, no
satellites
4

5. BACKGROUND
COMMUNICATION WITH NEUTRINOS
 Messages encoded in
binary bit state
 1 = has neutrino
 0 = no neutrino
 Travels at speed of
light
 Weak interaction,
losing information is
very small
 Hard to intercept 5

6. BACKGROUND
MINERVA COMMUNICATIONS
 2.25 x 1013 POT (protons on target) per spill
 120 GeV protons beam
 Spill lasts 8.1 μs and is separated by 2.2 s
 Peak neutrino E is ~3 GeV
 Detector ~1 km from target
 Expect 0.8 events/spill
 ~0.1 bits/s information rate
 < 1% Bit error rate
 Slow information transfer, low bit rate! 6

7. BACKGROUND
MINERVA COMMUNICATIONS
7
 2.25 x 1013 POT (protons on target) per spill
 120 GeV protons beam
 Spill lasts 8.1 μs and is separated by 2.2 s
 Peak neutrino E is ~3 GeV
 Detector ~1 km from target
 Expect 0.8 events/spill
 ~0.1 bits/s information rate
 < 1% Bit error rate
 Slow information transfer, low bit rate!

8. INFORMATION CONSIDERATIONS
BEAM STRUCTURE
 T2K: beam with 1 bunch/μs
 Many bunches per spill
 Time between spills O(seconds)
 Assume bunches carry information
 Use only one spill!
 Remember $$ is no issue,
this is Wall Street
8

9. INFORMATION CONSIDERATIONS
OPTIMIZE NUMBER OF BITS
 How many different messages?
 Buy or sell (2 options)
 Number of Shares: 107 possible options (100—109 in
steps of 100)
 106 Different Stocks (106 options)
 Total is N = 2 x 1013 options
Use 44 bunches in one spill, information sent
in at best ~44 μs + L/c!
9

10. INFORMATION CONSIDERATIONS
BIT ERROR RATE (BER)
 Assume equal probability to send 0 or 1
 Assume no error when 0 sent (no beam = no
neutrino)
 Probability to receive a “0” when a “1” was
transmitted with λ expected events:
 Minerva: λ = 4 (after 5 repetitions), P = 1%
 For P = 0.002%, need λ = 10 events
10

11. BEAM CONSIDERATIONS
NEUTRINO BEAM TYPE
 Requirements
 Fast Identity
 Good Purity
 Ignorable Background
 High Flux
 Muon neutrino is best
choice
 Long muon track easily
identifiable
 Pure muon neutrino
beam is practical
 Background mainly
from atmospheric
muons – ignorable from
direction, timestamp 11

12. BEAM CONSIDERATIONS
EXTRAPOLATE FROM MINERVA
 Oscillation length
 Oscillation probability for high energy (120 GeV)
neutrinos is negligible until large L (maximized
~80,000 km)
 σ~ E2, so cross section at 120 GeV increases by 1600
from Minerva (3 GeV)
 Minerva’s POT/spill: 2.25 x 1013
 Required POT/bunch to get 10 neutrino events/bunch
(120 GeV) at L=10000km
12
L[km] =
π
2 × 1.267
eV 2
∆m2
E
GeV

13. BEAM CONSIDERATIONS
BEAM POWER
 From MINOS, 120 GeV proton beam can
generate peak of 10 GeV neutrinos
 Assume linear scaling factor
 Beam of ~1.44 TeV protons generates 120 GeV
neutrinos
 Beam power given by:
 Compare with NuMI beam, assume T~O(ms),
POT increases by 105 and proton energy increase
by 10, the beam power should be 109 time NuMI
power (0.25MW)
 NOT FEASIBLE 13
P(kW) ∝ POT (1020
) × Ep (GeV )/T (107
s)

14. BEAM CONSIDERATIONS
POSSIBLE WORKAROUNDS
 Previous beam power assumed Minerva detector
as far detector
 Make bigger detector (e.g. IceCube)
 Increase neutrino energy
 Cross section scales as E2, power scales as E
 Preq(10 events) ~ 1/(V x E)
 IceCube ~ 1km3 and Minerva ~ 60m3  so if
using IceCube, power required reduced by
109/60=1.6x107 (Assuming similar cross-sections)
25MW
14

15. COMPUTER TECHNICAL DETAILS
 Use a predefined library of commands
 Store as binary tree
 Access tree as bits are decoded
 (Theoretically,) no encryption necessary as only
sender and receiver should have access to the
tree
15

16. QUATERNARY SYSTEM
ANOTHER BEAM
 Since wall street money is limitless, build second
beam
 Must NOT be muon neutrinos, must be pure
 Use isotope beam, or beta beam
 Generates 100% pure electron anti-neutrino beam
 Ex:
 Issues:
 Still much R&D
 Must synchronize pulses from both beams
 Must have enough land space to build both beams
16
6
2He++
→6
3 Li+++
+ e−
+ νe

17. QUATERNARY SYSTEM
NEW BIT OPTIMIZATION
 Quaternary system of bits, or q-bits:
 0 if no events
 1 if events
 2 if events
 3 if both events
 Number of q-bits
 24 for 2 x 1014 messages
 Information sent 50% faster than binary system!
17

18. DETECTOR TYPE
 Consider Minerva detector
 Uses 200 planes, alternating steel
and scintillator
 We need only to distinguish
electron events and muon events
 Determine difference between
electron showers and muon tracks
 Muon deposits same energy in
each plane, electron shower has a
changing energy deposition
 10-15 planes enough to ID
particle, reconstruct direction to
veto backgrounds
18

19. CONCLUSIONS AND COMMENTS
 Neutrino communication through the Earth can
be faster than light by hundreds of microseconds
 Using a pure muon neutrino beam and
scintillator detector, messages can be transferred
in 44 + L/c μs
 Requires unfeasibly high power
 Possible workarounds:
 Higher energy
 Larger volume detectors
 Using multiple flavor beams improves
communication speed, but not power
19

20. REFERENCES
 [1] http://cdn5.blog.doostang.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/wall-
street-sign.jpg
 [2] http://www.stockmarkets.com/images/map-large.gif
 [3] Dorminey, Bruce. “Neutrinos to Give High-Frequency Traders the
Millisecond Edge.” Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/
brucedorminey/2012/04/30/neutrinos-to-give-high-frequency-traders-
the-millisecond-edge/
 [4] http://www.techgear.gr/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/
neutrino_beam_communication.jpg
 [5] arXiv:1203.2847.
 [6] http://www.remarkablecard.com/catalog/item/
3185835/2737484.htm
 [7] http://nialangleyspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/12/this-is-sparta.html
 [8] http://www-numi.fnal.gov/minwork/info/dpb01.pdf
 [9] http://cupp.oulu.fi/neutrino/nd-cross.html
 [10] http://minerva.fnal.gov/
 [11] http://www.enigmatic-consulting.com/Communications_articles/
RFID/Resources/protocol_pix/binary_tree_w_tags_class0.gif
 [12] arXiv:hep-ex/0107006v4.
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21. EXTRAS
21

22. INFORMATION CONSIDERATIONS
BEAM STRUCTURE
 T2K: beam with 1 bunch/μs
 Many bunches per spill
 Time between spills O(seconds)
 Assume bunches carry information
 Use only one spill!
 Remember $$ is no issue,
THIS IS WALL STREET!
22