The latest nus from IceCube

摘要

IceCube is a neutrino detector sensitive to energies from 10~(10) eV to at least 10~(18) eV. IceCube operates by sensing the Cherenkov light from secondary particles produced in neutrino-matter interactions. One gigaton of highly transparent Antarctic ice is instrumented to achieve this goal. Designed to be modular, IceCube has been collecting data since construction began in 2005. Construction was completed in December 2010. The primary goal of IceCube is to observe astrophysical sources of neutrinos. Analyses include searches for galactic and extra-galactic cosmic ray sources, indirect searches for dark matter, searches for cosmogenic neutrinos, etc. Current results on searches for neutrinos from Gamma Ray Bursts, time-integrated searches for point sources and GZK neutrinos are presented. The GZK search resulted in the observation of two cascade-like events of ≈1 PeV energy, with little expected background. Implications of these two events are presented. The GRB and point source searches have not found evidence for extra-terrestrial high energy neutrinos. The GRB source has begun to challenge or rule out models that predict GRBs to be the sources of the highest energy cosmic rays. Finally, the future of IceCube and South Pole particle astrophysics is discussed.