Physics Research Conference

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.

Event Sponsors:

Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy - More events from this Sponsor

For more information, please contact Sheri Stoll by phone at 395-6608 or by email at sstoll@caltech.edu or visit http://pmaweb.caltech.edu/~physcoll/PhysColl.html.