Dark matter searches and fundamental neutrino measurements with IceCube-DeepCore and PINGU

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The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, located at South Pole Station Antarctica, is the world's largest neutrino detector. Optimized for neutrino energies between a few hundred GeV and tens of PeV, it is the premier facility for study of high energy neutrinos and indirect cosmological dark matter searches. In 2008 the original design for IceCube was augmented with a low-energy extension, called DeepCore, that reduced the threshold for the observatory to approximately 10 GeV. The low-energy threshold of DeepCore is achieved with additional instrumentation concentrated in the deepest region of IceCube. Utilizing the standard IceCube array as a 375 m thick active veto permits effective removal of the otherwise significant cosmic ray muon backgrounds from the DeepCore data stream to obtain a clean neutrino signal between 10 and 200 GeV. This energy range represents a particular window of interest for precision studies of neutrino oscillations and indirect searches for dark matter. Given that understanding the fundamental nature of dark matter and neutrinos is at the forefront of discovery in particle astrophysics, the physics program of DeepCore, which is now reaching its full sensitivity, is well poised to provide significant near future impact for central questions of the field. In addition, a potential future infill detector array in the DeepCore region called PINGU (Precision IceCube Next Generation Upgrade) is being designed to exploit the large statistical sample of atmospheric neutrinos in the multimegaton instrumented volume to provide a world's first definitive measurement of the neutrino mass hierarchy. Requested in the proposal will be funding to support the core IceCube-DeepCore analysis activities and commence development of the PINGU detector. The current IceCube Canada groups include 2 continuing PhD graduate students and 4 undergraduate researchers. Support for a postdoctoral fellow, and additional graduate and undergraduate researchers will be requested. Included in this proposal will be travel expenses to facilitate the group's role in this unique international collaboration, and common fund contributions.