High Energy Neutrino Astroparticle Physics with the IceCube at the South Pole

阿曼达/冰立方中微子望远镜的主要目标是在天体物理学中打开一个新的观测窗口。挑战是测量宇宙起源的高能中微子。这样的观测将有助于揭示最高能量宇宙射线的加速机制，并将有助于绘制其来源图。它们还可能提供有关高能伽马射线起源的重要见解。除了这些天体物理目标外，冰立方计划研究与粒子物理和宇宙学相关的主题，如暗物质的特征、额外维度、磁单极以及像原子核或Q球这样的奇异超重物体。冰立方对银河系内的超新星爆炸也很敏感。这项关于艾美奖诺特资助的提议旨在增强冰立方的物理潜力，利用10TeV以下的能量区域。根据目前冰立方的基线设计，这一能量对应于低能级物理分析阈值。这一提议的中心物理主题是寻找在该能带内发射中微子(即点源)的天体物理对象。提出了提高10TeV以下点源灵敏度的新方法。这包括开发“低能量”触发器、提高IceCube(光子传感器)光学模块的光收集效率以及对瞬变中微子候选点源使用空间和时间相关性(“多波长分析”)。

The prime objective for the AMANDA/IceCube neutrino telescopes is to open a new observational window in astrophysics. The challenge is to measure high energy neutrinos of cosmic origin. Such observation would shed light on the mechanisms of acceleration of the highest energy cosmic rays and would allow a mapping of their sources. They might also provide essential insights regarding the origin of high-energy gamma rays. Apart from these astrophysics objectives, IceCube plans to investigate topics related to particle physics and cosmology, such as signatures of dark matter, extra dimensions, magnetic monopoles, as well as exotic superheavy objects like nuclearities or Q-balls. IceCube will also be sensitive to supernovae explosions within our galaxy. This proposal for an Emmy Noether grant aims to enhance the physics potential of IceCube, exploiting the energy region below 10 TeV. This energy corresponds to the low energy physics analysis threshold according to the current baseline design of IceCube. The central physics topic of this proposal is the search for astrophysical objects which emit neutrinos (i.e. point sources) in this energy band. Novel methods for improving the sensitivity for point sources below 10 TeV are proposed. This includes the development of a `low-energy¿ trigger, the improvement of the light collection efficiency of the optical modules of IceCube (photon sensors) and the use of space and time correlations (`multi-wavelength analysis¿) for transient neutrino candidate point sources.