Supernova neutrinos in AMANDA and IceCube - Monte Carlo development and data analysis

• Main Author: Kowarik, Thomas
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz 2010
• Subjects: ddc:530; Antarctic; Milky Way; South Pole; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarktis*; South pole
• Online Access: https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/1015; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12030/1015; https://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-1013

Supernovae are among the most energetic events occurring in the universe and are so far the only verified extrasolar source of neutrinos. As the explosion mechanism is still not well understood, recording a burst of neutrinos from such a stellar explosion would be an important benchmark for particle physics as well as for the core collapse models. The neutrino telescope IceCube is located at the Geographic South Pole and monitors the antarctic glacier for Cherenkov photons. Even though it was conceived for the detection of high energy neutrinos, it is capable of identifying a burst of low energy neutrinos ejected from a supernova in the Milky Way by exploiting the low photomultiplier noise in the antarctic ice and extracting a collective rate increase. A signal Monte Carlo specifically developed for water Cherenkov telescopes is presented. With its help, we will investigate how well IceCube can distinguish between core collapse models and oscillation scenarios. In the second part, nine years of data taken with the IceCube precursor AMANDA will be analyzed. Intensive data cleaning methods will be presented along with a background simulation. From the result, an upper limit on the expected occurrence of supernovae within the Milky Way will be determined. Supernovae gehören zu den energiereichsten Ereignissen des Universums und stellen die einzig gesicherte extrasolare Neutrinoquelle dar. Da der Mechanismus der Explosion nicht ausreichend verstanden ist, wäre die Messung eines Ausbruchs von Neutrinos aus einem solchen Ereignis ein wichtiger Test, sowohl für die Explosionsmodelle als auch für die Elementarteilchenphysik. Das sich am Geographischen Südpol befindende Neutrinoteleskop IceCube weist Tscherenkow-Photonen im antarktischen Gletscher nach. Obwohl es für die Detektion hochenergetischer Neutrinos konzipiert wurde, ist es wegen des niedrigen Sensorrauschens im Eis möglich, den Neutrinoausbruch einer Supernova in der Milchstraße über eine kollektive Ratenerhöhung nachzuweisen. Mit einem speziell für ...