Machines Like Us

Intense neutrino beams that accompany muon colliders can be used for interstellar communications. The presence of multi-TeV extraterrestrial muon collider at several light-years distance can be detected after one year run of IceCube type neutrino telescopes, if the neutrino beam is directed towards the Earth. This opens a new avenue in SETI: search for extraterrestrial muon colliders.

Are we alone in the immensely large universe? This is one of fundamental questions steering the interest of broad public to SETI – the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. “It is to everyone’s benefit to nurture this interest in the real science of SETI rather than in the pseudoscience that preys on the public’s credulity” (Tarter, 2001). The theme of extraterrestrial creatures was always popular in human history and still abounds in popular culture. However, the real scientific SETI begins from the paper of Cocconi and Morrison some 50 years ago (Cocconi and Morrison, 1959), followed by the Project Ozma (Drake, 1965), the first dedicated search of extraterrestrial radio signals from two nearby Sun-like stars. Ever Since it was usually assumed that the centimeter wavelength electromagnetic signals are the best choice for interstellar communications. Here we question this old wisdom and argue that the muon collider, certainly in reach of modern day technology (Ankenbrandt et al., 1999), provides a far more unique marker of civilizations like our own [type I in Kardashev’s classification (Kardashev, 1964)]. Muon colliders are accompanied by a very intense and collimated high-energy neutrino beam which can be readily detected even at astronomical distances.

Read entire paper here (PDF).