Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations with IceCube DeepCore

使用 IceCube DeepCore 进行大气中微子振荡

• 批准号: 1505296
• 负责人: Douglas Cowen
• 金额: $ 81万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1505296&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Atmospheric; Neutrino; Oscillations; IceCube; DeepCore

Embedded deep in the ice cap at the South Pole, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (ICNO) is the world's largest and most sensitive high energy neutrino telescope. It is a 1 billion-ton detector using the Antarctic ice as a detection medium for high energy atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos. Most of the neutrinos observed by IceCube exhibit energies in the range expected for atmospheric neutrinos originating from decays of particles produced in extensive air showers by cosmic rays coming from nearby sectors of the Milky Way Galaxy. These may be used to measure the fundamental properties of neutrinos. At higher energies, astrophysical neutrinos are key probes of the high-energy universe. Because of their unique properties, neutrinos escape even dense regions, are not deflected by galactic or extra-galactic magnetic fields and traverse the photon-filled universe unhindered. Thus, neutrinos provide direct information about the dynamics and interiors of the powerful cosmic objects that may be the origins of high energy cosmic rays: supernovae, black holes, pulsars, active galactic nuclei and other extreme extragalactic phenomena.This award will provide opportunities for young physicists at all levels to become involved in particle astrophysics, with a particular emphasis on encouraging participation among women and underrepresented groups. The PI founded and serves as the faculty mentor to the Physics and Astronomy Women (PAW). PAW provides a forum for open discussion of the challenges facing women as well as their solutions, runs a mentoring program for starting undergraduate and graduate women in physics, increases the local visibility of women in science through outreach activities, and provides networking and professional development opportunities in a friendly environment.The DeepCore extension, a sub-array comprising the seven innermost IceCube strings, augmented by eight additional strings containing sensors deployed below 2100 m in the clearest ice, has enabled the observation of atmospheric neutrinos at energies as low as 10 billion electron-volts. This award will support this group to continue to exploit the DeepCore data to answer fundamental questions of neutrino physics, including a high statistics inclusive measurement of tau neutrino appearance and, with further refinements in reconstruction and analysis techniques, measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters. They will use neutrinos from IceCube and DeepCore to facilitate real-time searches for multi-messenger astrophysical sources via the Astrophysical Multi-messenger Observatory Network.

埋藏在南极冰盖深处的冰立方中微子天文台(ICNO)是世界上最大、最灵敏的高能中微子望远镜。它是一个10亿吨重的探测器，使用南极冰层作为高能大气和天体物理中微子的探测介质。冰立方观测到的大多数中微子的能量都在大气中微子的预期范围内，这些中微子是由来自银河系附近扇区的宇宙射线在大范围的空气骤雨中产生的粒子衰变而产生的。这些可以用来测量中微子的基本性质。在较高能量下，天体物理中微子是研究高能宇宙的关键探测器。由于其独特的性质，中微子甚至可以逃脱密集区域，不受银河系或银河系外磁场的偏转，畅通无阻地穿越充满光子的宇宙。因此，中微子提供了关于可能是高能宇宙射线起源的强大宇宙物体的动力学和内部的直接信息，这些物体包括超新星、黑洞、脉冲星、活动星系核和其他极端的河外现象。这一奖项将为各级年轻物理学家提供参与粒子天体物理学的机会，特别强调鼓励女性和代表性不足的群体参与。该协会是物理学和天文学妇女协会(PAW)的创办人和教师导师。PAW为女性面临的挑战及其解决方案提供了一个公开讨论的论坛，为物理学领域的本科生和研究生女性提供了一个指导计划，通过外联活动提高了当地女性在科学界的能见度，并在友好的环境中提供了联网和职业发展机会。DeepCore Expansion是一个由最里面的七根冰立方弦组成的子阵，再加上八根包含在最透明冰中2100米以下部署的传感器的子阵，使人们能够观测到能量低至100亿电子伏的大气中微子。该奖项将支持该小组继续利用DeepCore数据来回答中微子物理的基本问题，包括对tau中微子外观的高统计测量，以及随着重建和分析技术的进一步完善，测量中微子振荡参数。他们将使用来自IceCube和DeepCore的中微子，通过天体物理多信使天文台网络促进对多信使天体物理源的实时搜索。