Management and Operations of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory 2016-2021

该奖项为位于南极站的冰立方中微子观测站（ICNO）的持续管理和运营提供资金。核心团队的研究人员和工程师维护现有的ICNO基础设施在南极和家庭机构，保证不间断的科学独特，高质量的数据流。M&amp；O活动是建立在2008年开始科学运营后，ICNO整体运营管理非常成功的8年基础上的。ICNO的建设得到了NSF主要研究设备和设施建设（MREFC）账户的支持，并于2010年按计划在预算范围内完成。随着时间的推移，M&amp；O核心人员和冰立方合作内部人员的有效协调使这一立方公里探测器的性能显著提高。在过去的五年中，冰立方合作项目的科学成果非常突出。ICNO/M&amp；O活动的广泛影响是强大的，涉及博士后，研究生和（在某些情况下）本科生在中微子探测器的日常操作和校准。ICNO最近取得的非凡的物理成果及其在南极的非凡位置具有很高的潜力，可以在国家和国际一级激发高中儿童和一般公众的想象力。目前的ICNO/M&amp；O项目产生了关于检测到的中微子事件的更好的能量和角度分辨率信息，具有更高效的数据过滤器和更精确的探测器模拟，并为获取和分析数据所需的系统提供了持续的软件开发。这产生了具有高健壮性、可追溯性和可维护性的数据采集和数据管理系统。目前ICNO/M&amp；O的工作包括：(1)分配和集中管理活动的资源，以及(2)“实物”和机构捐助的额外问责机制。两者都是必要的，以确保探测器保持其产生高质量科学数据的能力，达到探测器科学发现目标所需的水平。ICNO最近发现的宇宙高能中微子（一些达到接近或超过2.5 PeV的能量）和振荡的大气中微子在以前未探索的能量范围从10到60 GeV成为可能，因为“最先进的”探测器配置，出色的支持基础设施，和尖端的科学分析。ICNO对暗物质湮灭进行了限制，对宇宙射线介子的角分布进行了精确测量，并详细描述了南极2.5公里厚冰盖的物理性质。冰立方发现的高能宇宙中微子，其通量达到了高能伽马射线和宇宙射线加速器所预期的水平，这为确定最高能量粒子的来源带来了希望。

This award funds the continued management and operations (M&O) of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (ICNO) located at the South Pole Station. The core team of researchers and engineers maintain the existing ICNO infrastructure at the South Pole and home institution, guaranteeing an uninterrupted stream of scientifically unique, high-quality data. The M&O activities are built upon eight highly successful years of managing the overall ICNO operations after the start of science operations in 2008. Construction of ICNO was supported by NSF's Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account and was completed on schedule and within budget in 2010. Effective coordination of efforts by the core M&O personnel and efforts by personnel within the IceCube Collaboration has yielded significant increases in the performance of this cubic-kilometer detector over time. The scientific output from the IceCube Collaboration during the past five years has been outstanding. 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 & calibration of the neutrino detector. The extraordinary physics results recently produced by ICNO 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 current ICNO/M&O effort produces better energy and angular resolution information about detected neutrino events, has more efficient data filters and more accurate detector simulations, and enables continuous software development for systems that are needed to acquire and analyze data. This has produced data acquisition and data management systems with high robustness, traceability, and maintainability. The current ICNO/M&O effort includes: (1) resources for both distributed and centrally managed activities, and (2) additional accountability mechanisms for "in-kind" and institutional contributions. Both are necessary to ensure that the detector maintains its capability to produce quality scientific data at the level required to achieve the detector's scientific discovery objectives. Recent ICNO discoveries of cosmic high-energy neutrinos (some reaching energies close to and over 2.5 PeV) and oscillating atmospheric neutrinos in a previously unexplored energy range from 10 to 60 GeV became possible because of the "state-of-the-art" detector configuration, excellently supported infrastructure, and cutting-edge science analyses. The ICNO has set limits on Dark Matter annihilations, made precision measurements of the angular distribution of cosmic ray muons, and characterized in detail physical properties of the Antarctic 2.5-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.