Neutrino astronomy with IceCube and AMANDA
Abstract. 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 200...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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2006
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.316.6884 http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0611773v1.pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract. 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. 1. The appeal of neutrino astronomy The road to a kilometre scale neutrino detector, pioneered by the DUMAND collaboration, has seen the operation of the first generation experiments, AMANDA and Lake Baikal, as well as initial construction and planning for IceCube, ANTARES, NESTOR, NEMO and KM3NET. The discovery of neutrinos with these detectors will hopefully extend and complement the knowledge of the universe to date gained through cosmic ray and gamma ray observations. While the nature and location of the cosmic ray sources are unknown, there are many confirmed sources of TeV gamma-rays. If one of these turned out to also be a neutrino source, then a hadronic accelerator central engine might be driving cosmic ray, gamma and neutrino production [2]. A neutrino detector like IceCube or AMANDA uses an array of photomultipliers to record |
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