6 pages, 4 figures, To appear in the proceedings for the Cosmic Ray International Seminar (CRIS 2008), Malfa, Salina Island, Italy, September 15 - 19, 2008
IceCube is a cubic neutrino telescope under construction at the South Pole since the austral summer 2004/2005 with a total instrumented volume of the order of 1 km^3. At the moment it is taking data with 40 deployed strings. The full detector is expected to be completed in 2011 with up to 80 strings holding 60 digital optical modules (DOMs) each. The progenitor detector AMANDA has been operating at the same site since 1997 and is still functioning as a means to enhance neutrino effective area at energies below 100 GeV. A summary of science results and status of the project is presented.
IceCube is a cubic kilometer-scale neutrino telescope under construction at the South Pole since the austral summer 2004/2005. At the moment it is taking data with 22 deployed strings. The full detector is expected to be completed in 2011 with up to 80 strings each holding 60 digital optical modules. The progenitor detector AMANDA has been operating at the same site since 1997 and is still running as an integral part of IceCube. A summary of AMANDA science for its 10 years of standalone operations is presented, as well as the status and first physics results of the IceCube project.
IceCube is a kilometer-scale high energy neutrino detector that builds on the wealth of experience accumulated with its smaller predecessor, AMANDA. An international collaboration has begun construction of key components of the IceCube detector and deployment operations at the South Pole will begin in late 2004. The underlying design of the IceCube detector and of the DAQ system are presented here, emphasizing the digital optical modules (DOMs) as the smallest discrete IceCube building block. The event reconstruction critically relies on a relative timing accuracy from DOM to DOM of a few nano…
The IceCube neutrino observatory, under construction at the South Pole, consists of three sub-detectors: a km-scale array of digital optical modules deployed deep in the ice, the AMANDA neutrino telescope and the surface array IceTop. We summarize results from searches for cosmic neutrinos with the AMANDA telescope and review expected sensitivities for IceCube at various installation phases. Reliability and robustness of installation at the South Pole has been demonstrated during the past four successful construction seasons. The 40 installed IceCube strings are working well. We are developing…
IceCube is a kilometer scale neutrino observatory now in construction at the South Pole. The construction started in January 2005 with the deployment of 76 sensors on the first string and four surface detector stations. Nine strings and 32 surface detectors are in operation since February 2006. The data based on calibration measurements, muons and artificial light flashes are consistent with performance expectations. This report focuses on design, construction experience and first data from the sensors deployed in January 2005.
We report on the current construction status of the IceCube high energy neutrino observatory and possible future construction plans. With the completion of the fourth construction season in Feb. 2008, the observatory is now instrumenting half a cubic kilometer of ice, greatly increasing the horizon for high energy neutrino detection. We briefly describe physics topics related to cosmology, such as indirect searches for supersymmetric cold dark matter, for slow and relativistic magnetic monopoles, GZK neutrinos and violation of Lorentz invariance or Equivalence Principle. It is anticipated that…
The primary motivation for building neutrino telescopes is to open the road for neutrino astronomy, and to offer another observational window for the study of cosmic ray origins. Other physics topics, such as the search for WIMPs, can also be developed with neutrino telescope. As of March 2008, the IceCube detector, with half of its strings deployed, is the world largest neutrino telescope taking data to date and it will reach its completion in 2011. Data taken with the growing detector are being analyzed. The results of some of these works are summarized here. AMANDA has been successfully int…
High-energy neutrinos are uniquely suited to study a large variety of physics as they traverse the universe almost untouched, in contrast to conventional astronomical messengers like photons or cosmic rays which are limited by interactions with radiation and matter at high energies or deflected by ambient magnetic fields. Located at the South Pole, IceCube combined with its predecessor AMANDA comprise the world's largest neutrino telescope. IceCube currently consists of nine strings, each containing 60 digital optical modules, deployed at depths of 1.5 to 2.5km in the ice and an array of 16 su…
IceCube is a 1 km3 neutrino telescope currently under construction at the South Pole. The detector will consist of 4800 optical sensors deployed at depths between 1450 m and 2450 m in clear Antarctic ice evenly distributed over 80 strings. An air shower array covering a surface area of 1 km^2 above the in-ice detector will measure cosmic ray air showers in the energy range from 300 TeV to above 1 EeV. The detector is designed to detect neutrinos of all flavors. With 40 strings currently in operation, construction is 50% complete. Based on data taken to date, the observatory meets its design go…
The year 2008 has witnessed remarkable steps in developing high energy neutrino telescopes. IceCube at the South Pole has been deployed with 40 of its planned 80 strings and reached half a cubic kilometer instrumented volume, in the Mediterranean Sea the "first-stage" neutrino telescope ANTARES has been completed and takes data with 12 strings. The next years will be key years for opening the neutrino window to the high energy universe. IceCube is presently entering a region with realistic discovery potential. Early discoveries (or non-discoveries) with IceCube will strongly influence the desi…
Search for ultra high-energy neutrino induced reactions, as part of a comprehensive probe of the neutrino sky and also investigation of the particle nature of the dark matter, with unique sensitivity to cold dark matter particles are described. We present a description of the design, scientific motivation and goals, performance and status of the IceCube experiment.
We discuss results of the AMANDA neutrino telescope, in operation at the South Pole since 2000, and present the status and scientific potential of its km$^3$ extension, IceCube.
This talk review status and results from the two presently operating underwater/ice neutrino telescopes, NT-200 in Lake Baikal and Amanda-II at the South Pole. It also gives a description of the design and the expected performance of Icecube, the next-generation neutrino telescope at South Pole.
Since the end of the 2005-2006 austral summer, the IceCube detector consists of an array of 9 strings, deployed between 1450 m and 2450 m of depth and containing 540 digital optical sensors and 16 IceTop surface stations with 64 sensors. With the integrated AMANDA-II experiment this is the world's largest neutrino telescope in operation. The construction status of IceCube is presented along with an update on physics performance study for the detection of high energy neutrinos. The potential of the full km^3-scale telescope in the search for astrophysical sources is also addressed.
In this paper we describe the performance of the 9 instrumented IceCube strings and 16 surface IceTop stations taking data at the Geographical South Pole after 2 deployment seasons. We will focus on the description of the array and on the construction and data analysis status. The expected full array performance is discussed and compared to other results for the relevant physics studies using high energy neutrinos for astrophysical neutrino searches.
The success of the AMANDA neutrino telescope has shown that the ice sheet at the geographical South Pole is a suitable medium for optical Cherenkov detection of high energy neutrino interactions. Several thousands of atmospheric neutrinos have been recorded by AMANDA and the sensitivity for cosmic neutrinos has continuously improved. So far no cosmic neutrino signals have been detected. The deployment of the much larger and more sensitive IceCube neutrino observatory has started and nine out of 80 strings have been installed. This paper summarizes some of the results obtained by the AMANDA tel…
IceCube is a kilometer scale high-energy neutrino observatory, currently under construction at the South Pole. It is a photo-detector, using the deep Antarctic ice as detection medium for the Cherenkov photons induced by relativistic charged particles. These charged particles may be atmospheric muons or reaction products from neutrino interactions in the vicinity of the instrumented volume. The experiment searches for neutrinos originating in astrophysical sources, and can also detect neutrinos from WIMP interaction in the Sun or Earth. In the last two austral summers, 9 in-ice strings and 16 …
The IceCube experiment at South Pole consists of two detector components - the IceTop air shower array on the surface and the neutrino telescope at depths from 1450 m to 2450 m below. Currently, 26 IceTop stations and 22 InIce strings are deployed. With the present size of the IceTop array, it is possible to measure cosmic rays with energies ranging from 0.5 to 100 PeV. Coincident events between the IceTop and the InIce detector provide useful cross-checks of the detector performance and furthermore make it possible to study the cosmic-ray composition. This paper gives an overview on the curre…
We review the status of the AMANDA neutrino telescope. We present results obtained from the four-string prototype array AMANDA-B4 and describe the methods of track reconstruction and neutrino event separation. We give also first results of the analysis of the 10-string detector AMANDA-B10, in particular on atmospheric neutrinos and the search for magnetic monopoles. We sketch the future schedule on the way to a cube kilometer telescope at the South Pole, ICECUBE
Kilometer-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube are discovery instruments covering nuclear and particle physics, cosmology and astronomy. Examples of their multidisciplinary missions include the search for the particle nature of dark matter and for additional small dimensions of space. In the end, their conceptual design is very much anchored to the observational fact that Nature produces protons and photons with energies in excess of $10^{20}$\,eV and $10^{13}$\,eV, respectively. The puzzle of where and how Nature accelerates the highest energy cosmic particles is unresolved almost a centu…
AMANDA (Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array) is a neutrino telescope built under the southern polar icecap, and its scope is exploring the possibility to detect high energy cosmic neutrinos generated by powerful celestial objects where acceleration mechanisms can bring protons up to 10^20 eV. We describe the achievements and results from the AMANDA-B10 prototype and the preliminary results from the current AMANDA-II detector showing a dramatic increase in sensitivity. An outlook on IceCube will be given.
IceCube is currently being built deep in the glacial ice beneath the South Pole. In its second year of construction, it is already larger than its predecessor, AMANDA. AMANDA continues to collect high energy neutrino and muon data as an independent detector until it is integrated with IceCube. After introducing both detectors, recent results from AMANDA and a status report on IceCube are presented.
The AMANDA neutrino detector has been in operation at the South Pole for several years. A number of searches for extraterrestrial sources of high energy neutrinos have been performed. A selection of results is presented in this paper. The much larger IceCube detector will extend the instrumented ice volume to a cubic kilometer and 9 out of 80 planned IceCube strings have been deployed to date. We present the status for both detectors.
Since the early 1990s, the South Pole has been the site of the construction of the world's first under-ice Cherenkov neutrino telescopes - AMANDA and IceCube. The AMANDA detector was completed in 2000, and its successor IceCube, a kilometre scale neutrino detector, began construction in 2005. Completion of IceCube is scheduled for 2011. This paper will give an overview of the history, construction, latest physics results and potential of these detectors.
The first sensors of the IceCube neutrino observatory were deployed at the South Pole during the austral summer of 2004-05 and have been producing data since February 2005. One string of 60 sensors buried in the ice and a surface array of 8 ice Cherenkov tanks took data until December 2005 when deployment of the next set of strings and tanks began. We have analyzed these data, demonstrating that the performance of the system meets or exceeds design requirements. Times are determined across the whole array to a relative precision of better than 3 nanoseconds, allowing reconstruction of muon tra…
Astrophysical neutrinos can be produced in proton interactions of charged cosmic rays with ambient photon or baryonic fields. Cosmic rays are observed in balloon, satellite and air shower experiments every day, from below 1e9 eV up to macroscopic energies of 1e21 eV. The observation of different photon fields has been done ever since, today with detections ranging from radio wavelengths up to very high-energy photons in the TeV range. The leading question for neutrino astronomers is now which sources provide a combination of efficient proton acceleration with sufficiently high photon fields or…
The IceCube Observatory is a km^3 neutrino telescope currently under construction at the geographic South Pole. It will comprise 4800 optical sensors deployed on 80 vertical strings between 1450 and 2450 meters under the ice surface. Currently IceCube is operational and recording data with 40 strings (i.e. 2400 optical sensors). The IceCube Observatory will collect an unprecedented number of high energy neutrinos that will allow us to pursue studies of the atmospheric neutrino flux, and to search for extraterrestrial sources of neutrinos, whether point-like or unresolved. IceCube results will …
The IceCube neutrino detector is a cubic kilometer TeV to PeV neutrino detector under construction at the geographic South Pole. The dominant population of neutrinos detected in IceCube is due to meson decay in cosmic-ray air showers. These atmospheric neutrinos are relatively well-understood and serve as a calibration and verification tool for the new detector. In 2006, the detector was approximately 10% completed, and we report on data acquired from the detector in this configuration. We observe an atmospheric neutrino signal consistent with expectations, demonstrating that the IceCube detec…
The first string of the neoteric high energy neutrino telescope IceCube successfully began operating in January 2005. It is anticipated that upon completion the new detector will vastly increase the sensitivity and extend the reach of AMANDA to higher energies. A discussion of the IceCube's discovery potential for extra-terrestrial neutrinos, together with the prospects of new physics derived from the ongoing AMANDA research will be the focus of this paper. Preliminary results of the first antarctic high energy neutrino telescope AMANDA searching in the muon neutrino channel for localized and …
Kilometer-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube are discovery instruments covering nuclear and particle physics, cosmology and astronomy. Examples of their multidisciplinary missions include the search for the particle nature of dark matter and for additional small dimensions of space. In the end, their conceptual design is very much anchored to the observational fact that Nature accelerates protons and photons to energies in excess of 10^{20} and 10^{13} eV, respectively. The cosmic ray connection sets the scale of cosmic neutrino fluxes. In this context, we discuss the first results of th…
This talk summarizes the main physics goals and basic methods of telescopes for high energy neutrinos. It reviews the present status of deep underwater telescopes and sketches the ICECUBE project as an example for a cube kilometer detector. It is suggested to develop techniques for radio and acoustic detection hand in hand with big optical arrays. These large arrays should be complemented by medium-size detectors in the Megaton range.
IceCube is a 1 km$^3$ neutrino observatory being built to study neutrino production in active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, supernova remnants, and a host of other astrophysical sources. High-energy neutrinos may signal the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. IceCube will also study many particle-physics topics: searches for WIMP annihilation in the Earth or the Sun, and for signatures of supersymmetry in neutrino interactions, studies of neutrino properties, including searches for extra dimensions, and searches for exotica such as magnetic monopoles or Q-balls. IceCube will also st…
Kilometer-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube are discovery instruments covering nuclear and partile physics, cosmology and astronomy. Examples of their multidisciplinary mission include the search for the particle nature of dark matter and for additional small dimensions of space. In these lectures, we discuss the nature of cosmic neutrinos and their sources, the need for kilometer-scale detectors and the status and methodologies of current detectors.
While the first kilometer-scale neutrino telescope, IceCube, is under construction, alternative plans exist to build even larger detectors that will, however, b e limited by a much higher neutrino energy threshold of 10 PeV or higher rather than 10 to 100 GeV. These future projects detect radio and acoustic pulses as w ell as air showers initiated by ultra-high energy neutrinos. As an alternative, we here propose an expansion of IceCube, using the same strings, placed on a gri d with a spacing of order 500 m. Unlike other proposals, the expanded detector uses methods that are understood and ca…
This paper investigates the physics reach of the IceCube neutrino detector when it will have collected a data set of order one million atmospheric neutrinos with energies in the 0.1 \sim 10^4 TeV range. The paper consists of three parts. We first demonstrate how to simulate the detector performance using relatively simple analytic methods. Because of the high energies of the neutrinos, their oscillations, propagation in the Earth and regeneration due to τdecay must be treated in a coherent way. We set up the formalism to do this and discuss the implications. In a final section we apply the met…
