We report on results of an all-sky search for high-energy neutrino events interacting within the IceCube neutrino detector conducted between May 2010 and May 2012. The search follows up on the ...previous detection of two PeV neutrino events, with improved sensitivity and extended energy coverage down to about 30 TeV. Twenty-six additional events were observed, substantially more than expected from atmospheric backgrounds. Combined, both searches reject a purely atmospheric origin for the 28 events at the 4σ level. These 28 events, which include the highest energy neutrinos ever observed, have flavors, directions, and energies inconsistent with those expected from the atmospheric muon and neutrino backgrounds. These properties are, however, consistent with generic predictions for an additional component of extraterrestrial origin.
We report on a search for electro-magnetic and/or hadronic showers (cascades) induced by high-energy neutrinos in the data collected with the AMANDA II detector during the year 2000. The observed ...event rates are consistent with the expectations for atmospheric neutrinos and muons. We place upper limits on a diffuse flux of extraterrestrial electron, tau and muon neutrinos. A flux of neutrinos with a spectrum Φ∝E−2 which consists of an equal mix of all flavors, is limited to E2Φ(E)=8.6×10−7 GeVcm−2s−1sr−1 at a 90% confidence level for a neutrino energy range 50 TeV to 5 PeV. We present bounds for specific extraterrestrial neutrino flux predictions. Several of these models are ruled out.
Data taken during 1997 with the AMANDA-B10 detector are searched for a diffuse flux of neutrinos of all flavors with energies above 1016eV. At these energies the Earth is opaque to neutrinos, and ...thus neutrino induced events are concentrated at the horizon. The background are large muon bundles from down-going atmospheric air shower events. No excess events above the background expectation are observed and a neutrino flux following E−2, with an equal mix of all flavors, is limited to E2Φ(1015eV<E<3×1018eV)⩽0.99×10−6GeVcm−2s−1sr−1 at 90% confidence level. This is the most restrictive experimental bound placed by any neutrino detector at these energies. Bounds to specific extraterrestrial neutrino flux predictions are also presented.
We have performed a search for muon neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the center of the Sun with the 79-string configuration of the IceCube neutrino telescope. For the first time, the ...DeepCore subarray is included in the analysis, lowering the energy threshold and extending the search to the austral summer. The 317 days of data collected between June 2010 and May 2011 are consistent with the expected background from atmospheric muons and neutrinos. Upper limits are set on the dark matter annihilation rate, with conversions to limits on spin-dependent and spin-independent scattering cross sections of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) on protons, for WIMP masses in the range 20-5000 GeV/c2. These are the most stringent spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross section limits to date above 35 GeV/c2 for most WIMP models.
IceTop: The surface component of IceCube Abbasi, R.; Aguilar, J.A.; Ahlers, M. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
02/2013, Letnik:
700
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
IceTop, the surface component of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, is an air shower array with an area of 1km2. The detector allows a detailed exploration of the mass composition of ...primary cosmic rays in the energy range from about 100TeV to 1EeV by exploiting the correlation between the shower energy measured in IceTop and the energy deposited by muons in the deep ice. In this paper we report on the technical design, construction and installation, the trigger and data acquisition systems as well as the software framework for calibration, reconstruction and simulation. Finally the first experience from commissioning and operating the detector and the performance as an air shower detector will be discussed.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, approximately 1km3 in size, is now complete with 86 strings deployed in the Antarctic ice. IceCube detects the Cherenkov radiation emitted by charged particles ...passing through or created in the ice. To realize the full potential of the detector, the properties of light propagation in the ice in and around the detector must be well understood. This report presents a new method of fitting the model of light propagation in the ice to a data set of in situ light source events collected with IceCube. The resulting set of derived parameters, namely the measured values of scattering and absorption coefficients vs. depth, is presented and a comparison of IceCube data with simulations based on the new model is shown.
This paper describes the response of the IceCube neutrino telescope located at the geographic south pole to outbursts of MeV neutrinos from the core collapse of nearby massive stars. IceCube was ...completed in December 2010 forming a lattice of 5160 photomultiplier tubes that monitor a volume of ~1 km3 in the deep Antarctic ice for particle induced photons. The telescope was designed to detect neutrinos with energies greater than 100 GeV. Owing to subfreezing ice temperatures, the photomultiplier dark noise rates are particularly low. Hence IceCube can also detect large numbers of MeV neutrinos by observing a collective rise in all photomultiplier rates on top of the dark noise. With 2 ms timing resolution, IceCube can detect subtle features in the temporal development of the supernova neutrino burst. For a supernova at the galactic center, its sensitivity matches that of a background-free megaton-scale supernova search experiment. The sensitivity decreases to 20 standard deviations at the galactic edge (30 kpc) and 6 standard deviations at the Large Magellanic Cloud (50 kpc). IceCube is sending triggers from potential supernovae to the Supernova Early Warning System. The sensitivity to neutrino properties such as the neutrino hierarchy is discussed, as well as the possibility to
We present the results of a search for neutrino point sources using the IceCube data collected between 2008 April and 2011 May with three partially completed configurations of the detector: the 40-, ...59-, and 79-string configurations. The live-time of this data set is 1040 days. An unbinned maximum likelihood ratio test was used to search for an excess of neutrinos above the atmospheric background at any given direction in the sky. By adding two more years of data with improved event selection and reconstruction techniques, the sensitivity was improved by a factor of 3.5 or more with respect to the previously published results obtained with the 40-string configuration of IceCube. We performed an all-sky survey and a dedicated search using a catalog of a priori selected objects observed by other telescopes. In both searches, the data are compatible with the background-only hypothesis. In the absence of evidence for a signal, we set upper limits on the flux of muon neutrinos. For an E super(-2) neutrino spectrum, the observed limits are (0.9-5) x 10 super(-12) TeV super(-1) cm super(-2) s super(-1) for energies between 1 TeV and 1 PeV in the northern sky and (0.9-23.2) x 10 super(-12) TeV super(-1) cm super(-2) s super(-1) for energies between 10 super(2) TeV and 10 super(2) PeV in the southern sky. We also report upper limits for neutrino emission from groups of sources that were selected according to theoretical models or observational parameters and analyzed with a stacking approach. Some of the limits presented already reach the level necessary to quantitatively test current models of neutrino emission.
We report on the observation of anisotropy in the arrival direction distribution of cosmic rays at PeV energies. The analysis is based on data taken between 2009 and 2012 with the IceTop air shower ...array at the south pole. IceTop, an integral part of the IceCube detector, is sensitive to cosmic rays between 100 TeV and 1 EeV. With the current size of the IceTop data set, searches for anisotropy at the 10 super(-3) level can, for the first time, be extended to PeV energies. We divide the data set into two parts with median energies of 400 TeV and 2 PeV, respectively. In the low energy band, we observe a strong deficit with an angular size of about 30degrees and an amplitude of (-1.58 + or - 0.46 sub(stat) + or - 0.52 sub(sys)) x 10 super(-3) at a location consistent with previous observations of cosmic rays with the IceCube neutrino detector. The study of the high energy band shows that the anisotropy persists to PeV energies and increases in amplitude to (-3.11 + or - 0.38 sub(stat) + or - 0.96 sub(sys)) x 10 super(-3).
In this paper we report the first observation in the Southern hemisphere of an energy dependence in the Galactic cosmic-ray anisotropy up to a few hundred TeV. This measurement was performed using ...cosmic-ray-induced muons recorded by the partially deployed IceCube observatory between 2009 May and 2010 May. The data include a total of 33 x 10 super(9) muon events with a median angular resolution of ~3degrees. A sky map of the relative intensity in arrival direction over the Southern celestial sky is presented for cosmic-ray median energies of 20 and 400 TeV. The same large-scale anisotropy observed at median energies around 20 TeV is not present at 400 TeV. Instead, the high-energy sky map shows a different anisotropy structure including a deficit with a post-trial significance of -6.3sigma. This anisotropy reveals a new feature of the Galactic cosmic-ray distribution, which must be incorporated into theories of the origin and propagation of cosmic rays.
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