Management and Operations of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory 2021-2026

该奖项资助了冰立方中微子观测站（ICNO）的持续管理和运营（M&amp；O），该观测站位于深冰中的南极站（南极洲）。由研究人员和工程师组成的核心团队在各自的机构维护南极现有的中微子探测器基础设施，以保证ICNO在科学上独特的高质量数据流的不间断。随着时间的推移，M&amp；O人员和冰立方合作组织内的科学家的有效协调共同努力，使这一立方公里探测器的性能显著提高。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）本科生在立方公里中微子探测器的日常操作和校准。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具有很高的潜力，可以在国家和国际层面上激发高中儿童和公众的想象力。冰立方立方公里探测器是作为一种发现仪器而设计的，它已经在中微子能量的六个数量级上提供了世界领先的科学成果——从以前未开发的10到60千兆电子伏特（GeV）能量范围内的大气中微子振荡测量到能量超过10,000太电子伏特（TeV）的宇宙中微子观测。其中包括首次探测到的Glashow共振事件，即6300 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，确立了中微子天体物理学作为观测极端宇宙的“窗口”的适当作用。在100 TeV以上，中微子是精确定位宇宙加速器的独特信使，这些加速器为观测到的大通量宇宙射线提供动力，2017年9月22日，冰立方警报导致了这样一个宇宙射线的潜在来源- blazar TXS 0506+056。冰立方将继续成为多信使天体物理学以及广泛的中微子和宇宙射线科学中传递中微子成分的独特工具。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2.6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。用PeV能量的宇宙光束来研究中微子物理学的前景可能会使冰立方成为探索标准模型之外的中微子物理学的工具。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.