Search for Neutrino-Induced Cacscades with AMANDA Data Taken in 2000-2004

• Main Authors: Tarasova, O., Kowalski, M., Walter, M., IceCube Collaboration
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico 2007
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; South Pole; Antarc*; Ice cap; South pole
• Online Access: https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/83072; https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/search?p=id:%22PHPPUBDB-5455%22

The Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) is a Cherenkov detector deployed in the Antarctic ice cap at the South Pole. The carged-current interaction of high-energy electron or tau neutrinos, as well as the neutral-current interactions of neutrinos of any flavor, can produce isolated electromagnetic or hadronic cascades. There are several advantages associated with the cascade channel in the search for a "diffuse" flux of astrophysical neutrinos. The energy resolution of AMANDA allows us to distinguish between a hard astrophysical spectrum and a soft atmospheric spectrum. In addition, the flux of atmospheric electron neutrinos is lower ba an order of magnitude relative to atmospheric nuon neutrinos, while the background from downward-going atmospheric muons can be suppressed due to their track-like topology. The low background in this channel allows us to attain 4π acceptance above energies of ∼ 50 TeV. We present the analysis of AMANDA data collected during 2000-2004. Compared to our previous analysis, this data set is a factor of five larg er, resulting in a correspondingly improved sensitivity for the flux of astrophysical neutrinos.