Management and Operations of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory 2021-2026

2021-2026年冰立方中微子观测站的管理和运营

• 批准号: 2042807
• 负责人: Francis Halzen
• 金额: $ 3838.03万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-04-01 至 2026-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2042807&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Management; Operations; IceCube; Neutrino; Observatory

This award funds the continued management and operations (M&O) of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (ICNO) located at the South Pole Station (Antarctica) in the deep ice. The core team of researchers and engineers maintain the existing neutrino detector infrastructure at the South Pole from their home institutions that guarantee an uninterrupted stream of ICNO's scientifically unique, high-quality data. Effective coordination of joint efforts by the M&O personnel and scientists from within the IceCube Collaboration has yielded significant increases in the performance of this cubic-kilometer detector with time. The broader impacts of the ICNO/M&O activities are strong, involving postdoctoral, graduate, and (in some cases) undergraduate students in the day-today operation and calibration of the cubic-km neutrino detector. The outstanding physics results produced by ICNO in the past decade and its extraordinary location at South Pole have a high potential to excite the imagination of high school children and the public in general at a national and international level.The IceCube cubic-km detector, designed as a discovery instrument, has delivered world-leading scientific results across six orders of magnitude in neutrino energy - from measurements of atmospheric neutrino oscillations in the previously unexplored 10 to 60 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) energy range to observations of cosmic neutrinos with energies exceeding 10,000 teraelectronvolts (TeV). Among them is the first detection of a Glashow resonance event, a 6,300-TeV antielectron neutrino interaction with an atomic electron in the ice producing a W boson. The discovery of high-energy cosmic neutrinos by IceCube has established an appropriate role of neutrino astrophysics as "a window" in observing the extreme Universe. Above 100 TeV, neutrinos are unique messengers to pinpoint cosmic accelerators that power the large fluxes of observed cosmic rays, and on September 22, 2017, an IceCube alert led to such a cosmic ray potential source - the blazar TXS 0506+056. IceCube will remain a unique tool for the delivery of the neutrino component of multimessenger astrophysics as well as a broad range of neutrino and cosmic ray science. The ICNO has set limits on Dark Matter annihilation, made precision measurements of the angular distribution of cosmic ray muons, and characterized in detail physical properties of the Antarctic 2.6-km thick ice sheet at South Pole. The discovery of high-energy cosmic neutrinos by IceCube with a flux at the level anticipated for those associated with high-energy gamma- and cosmic-ray accelerators brightens the prospect for identifying the sources of the highest energy particles. The prospect to do neutrino physics with a cosmic beam at PeV energies may turn IceCube into a tool to explore neutrino physics beyond the Standard Model.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项为位于南极南极洲南极站深冰中的IceCube中微子观测站（ICNO）的持续管理和运营（M O）提供资金。研究人员和工程师组成的核心团队从他们的家乡机构维护南极现有的中微子探测器基础设施，以保证ICNO科学上独特的高质量数据的不间断流。通过有效协调气象组织工作人员和冰立方合作组织内部科学家的共同努力，这台100公里探测器的性能随着时间的推移而显著提高。ICNO/MO活动的更广泛的影响是强大的，涉及博士后，研究生和（在某些情况下）本科生在日常的操作和校准的100公里中微子探测器。ICNO在过去十年中取得的杰出物理成果及其在南极的特殊位置，极有可能激发高中生和国家和国际一级公众的想象力。在中微子能量的六个数量级上取得了世界领先的科学成果，从测量以前未探测到的10至60千兆电子伏特（GeV）能量范围内的大气中微子振荡到观测能量超过10，000太电子伏特（TeV）的宇宙中微子。其中之一是首次探测到一个6，300 TeV的反电子中微子与冰中的原子电子相互作用产生W玻色子。冰立方对高能宇宙中微子的发现，为中微子天体物理学在观测极端宇宙中的“窗口”地位奠定了基础。在100 TeV以上，中微子是确定宇宙加速器的独特信使，这些加速器为观测到的宇宙射线的大通量提供动力，2017年9月22日，IceCube警报导致了这样一个宇宙射线潜在源-耀变体TXS 0506+056。IceCube仍将是提供多信使天体物理学中微子部分以及广泛的中微子和宇宙射线科学的独特工具。ICNO对暗物质湮灭设定了限制，对宇宙线μ子的角分布进行了精确测量，并详细描述了南极2.6公里厚冰盖的物理特性。冰立方发现了高能宇宙中微子，其通量达到了高能伽马射线和宇宙射线加速器预期的水平，这为确定最高能量粒子的来源提供了前景。利用PeV能量的宇宙束进行中微子物理学研究的前景可能会使IceCube成为探索标准模型之外的中微子物理学的工具。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。