Neutrino Astronomy: the IceCube Neutrino Telescope

by Dr Elisa Resconi (Head of the Emmy-Noether Junior Research Group at the MPIfK, Heidelberg)

Tuesday 15 Mar 2011, 17:15 → 18:15 Europe/Berlin

Auditorium

The construction of the IceCube Neutrino Telescope at the South Pole is completed since December 2010. IceCube provides an unprecedented high statistics sample of atmospheric neutrinos spanning five orders of magnitude in energy (100 GeV - 400 TeV), world- wide best sensitivity to galactic and extra-galactic cosmic ray accelerators as well as to the spin-dependent cross section of dark matter with nucleons. As of February 2011, 86 strings and 80 IceTop stations comprise IceCube. IceCube includes an inner array (DeepCore) of densely spaced strings, equipped with high quantum efficiency PMTs. The use of DeepCore allows the lowering of the energy threshold down to about 10 GeV. IceCube enjoys remarkably stable operation: 96-98 % throughout the year, low PMTs dark noise (200-300 Hz), minimal PMTs failure rate and no evidence of any aging effects. We will report recent results and future prospectives of the project.

Slides E_Resconi_MPP_seminar.pdf