Physics Research Conference
East Bridge 201 (Richard P. Feynman Lecture Hall)
IceCube and the Discovery of High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos
Francis Halzen,
Hilldale and Gregory Breit Professor,
Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center and Department of Physics,
University of Wisconsin-Madison,
The IceCube project has transformed one cubic kilometer of natural Antarctic ice into a neutrino detector. The instrument detects more than 100,000 neutrinos per year in the GeV to PeV energy range. Among those, we have recently isolated a flux of high-energy cosmic neutrinos. I will discuss the instrument, the analysis of the data, and the significance of the discovery of cosmic neutrinos. The observed cosmic neutrino flux implies that a significant fraction of the energy in the non-thermal universe, powered by the gravitational energy of compact objects from neutron stars to supermassive black holes, is generated in hadronic accelerators.
For more information, please contact Sheri Stoll by phone at 395-6608 or by email at [email protected] or visit http://pmaweb.caltech.edu/~physcoll/PhysColl.html.
Event Series
Physics Research Conference