Analysis of IceCube Data

冰立方及其前身南极μ子和中微子探测器阵列（阿曼达）已准备好开始实现其作为发现仪器的全部潜力。这些中微子望远镜旨在探测和重建能量尺度远远超出现代加速器所能达到的能量尺度的高能中微子，将使粒子天体物理学家能够窥视宇宙中一些最具活力的现象的核心，例如伽马射线爆发和活动星系核，据信是由超大质量黑洞提供动力的。 这些仪器对附近可能发生的暗物质湮灭也很敏感，对暗物质湮灭的探测将对我们理解宇宙的组成和生命周期产生深远的影响。 这些仪器由深埋在南极异常清澈的冰层中的宽间距三维光电倍增管阵列组成，对其他各种各样的高能和罕见现象也很敏感。我们的目标是利用冰立方的巨大发现潜力，特别是分析将在未来几年的全面测试中由IceCube和阿曼达探测器组合提供的丰富数据集，成熟的冰立方数据采集系统 在此期间，我们将拥有一个比任何其他现有的可比探测器大一个数量级的探测器。 在宾夕法尼亚州立大学，我们将使用这个世界级的设备来测量高能量大气电子中微子的通量，并寻找偏离预期光谱的新物理学证据，从瞬态源中寻找高能中微子，并开发检测τ中微子的技术，这是河外起源的极好指标。 我们还将探索使用专门的高性能，高内存计算设施，可在宾夕法尼亚州立大学，这可能会提供物理分析的显着好处。 最后，在与宾夕法尼亚州立大学的几位同事合作，我们将开发和提供一系列的专业发展研讨会高中教师，说明我们的粒子天体物理学研究和核心科学概念之间的连接教作为国家和国家科学标准的一部分，并给教师的想法把这项研究带入课堂。

IceCube and its predecessor, the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA), are poised to begin realizing their full potential as discovery instruments. Designed to detect and reconstruct ultrahigh energy neutrinos at energy scales that extend well beyond those attainable with modern accelerators, these neutrino telescopes will enable particle astrophysicists to peer into the hearts of some of the densest, most energetic phenomena in the universe, such as gamma ray bursts and active galactic nuclei, believed to be powered by supermassive black holes. The instruments are also sensitive to possible nearby dark matter annihilations, the detection of which would have a profound impact on our understanding of the composition and life-cycle of the universe. Consisting of widely-spaced three-dimensional arrays of photomultiplier tubes deeply buried in the exceptionally clear ice at the South Pole, the instruments are sensitive to a wide variety of other energetic and rare phenomena as well.We aim to exploit the considerable discovery potential of IceCube, and in particular to analyze the rich dataset that will be provided by the combined IceCube and AMANDA detectors during the next few years of full-fledged IceCube data-taking. During this time, we will have a detector that is more than an order of magnitude larger than any other existing comparable detector. At Penn State, we will use this world-class device to measure the flux of atmospheric electron neutrinos at high energies and search for deviations from the expected spectrum as evidence of new physics, to search for ultrahigh energy neutrinos from transient sources, and to develop techniques to detect tau neutrinos, which are excellent indicators of extragalactic origin. We will also explore the use of specialized high-performance, high-memory computational facilities available at Penn State, which may offer significant benefits for physics analysis. Finally, in collaboration with several colleagues at Penn State, we will be developing and offering a series of professional development workshops for high school teachers, to illustrate the connections between our particle astrophysics research and core science concepts taught as part of national and state science standards, and to give teachers ideas for bringing this research into the classroom.