Monitoring the Night Sky for IceACT

• Main Authors: Alderete, Andre Sierra, Hewitt, John W., Huelsnitz, Warren
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: UNF Digital Commons 2021
• Subjects: SOARS (Conference) (2021 : University of North Florida) – Archives; SOARS (Conference) (2021 : University of North Florida) – Posters; University of North Florida > Students > Research – Posters; University of North Florida. Office of Undergraduate Research; University of North Florida. Graduate School; College students – Research > Florida – Jacksonville – Posters; University of North Florida – Undergraduates > Research – Posters; University of North Florida. Department of Physics > Research – Posters; Astronomical instruments – Posters; Astronomy > Posters; Astrophysics and Astronomy; Physics; Antarctic; South Pole; The Antarctic; Antarc*; South pole
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/soars/2021/spring_2021/20; https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1230&context=soars

The neutral subatomic neutrinos are astronomical messengers that can provide us information to investigate the most violent astrophysical sources: supernovas, gamma-ray bursts, and cataclysmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars. As these astrophysical neutrinos freely travel from their point of origin without being scattered by interstellar magnetic fields, we can analyze these particles by observing cosmic-ray air showers on the Earth’s atmosphere. These are produced by the energetic neutrinos by interacting with the air particles that produce a wavefront of Cherenkov radiation. To better identify these background neutrinos, IceCube, the South Pole Neutrino Observatory, constructed an imaging air Cherenkov telescopes otherwise known as IceACT, that are located at the South Pole. These telescopes contain the resources to detect the atmospheric muons produced by the cosmic-ray air showers. Furthermore, IceACT can independently calibrate the angular reconstruction of IceCube to provide accurate results in future trials. Our objective is to further conclude that the data obtained by IceACT supports the readings by IceCube by providing an analysis that the Antarctic night sky interferes of detecting any possible indications of Cherenkov radiation. Through analyzing a sample size of 30 detected stars, we found that only about 60% of the photometric measurements are explained by a linear fit. Furthermore, calibrating the transparency of the atmosphere for IceACT measurements can be done to an uncertainty of approximately 0.5 magnitudes.