News – Page 64

Solar dark matter continues hiding from IceCube

Posted on February 6, 2017 by Silvia Bravo

The IceCube Collaboration has recently presented an update to the search for dark matter annihilation in the sun using the first three years of data with the completed detector. The search, which again did not find evidence of neutrinos originating from dark matter annihilations, has now improved these limits by a factor of 2 to 4. These are again the most stringent limits on the spin-dependent dark-matter–proton scattering for WIMP masses above 50 GeV. This study was submitted to the European Physical Journal C. […]

‘Ghost particles’ could improve understanding the universe

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Staff

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New measurements of neutrino oscillations, observed at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, have shed light on outstanding questions regarding fundamental properties of neutrinos. These new measurements of neutrinos as they change from one type to another while they travel were presented at the American Physical Society Meeting in Washington. […]

Week 3 at the Pole

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Jean DeMerit

Last week’s photos sum up the main activities for IceCube folks currently at the South Pole—snowmobiling, shoveling, and sunbathing. […]

Week 2 at the Pole

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Jean DeMerit

Wait a minute—seals? penguins? at the South Pole? Well, you’re right to wonder, because the climate at the South Pole, in central Antarctica, is too harsh for survival even for animals adapted to lower temperatures. But winterovers deserve a break from Pole life when possible, and IceCube winterover Martin made it to McMurdo station last week for a few days of R&R, where he was able to capture penguins, seals, and a skua—all in the same shot. […]

Week 1 at the Pole

Posted on January 13, 2017 by Jean DeMerit

A relatively quiet week at the Pole … but sunny! IceCube winterover Martin captured a bright, radiating sun as it appeared to rest on the roof of the IceCube Lab (ICL). Sunny or not, no flights made it in or out last week, postponing Martin’s week of R&R that had been scheduled. […]

Week 52 at the Pole

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Jean DeMerit

The year’s end doesn’t mean an end to the work going on at the Pole. Last week, continued detector upgrades and some inventory tasks were on the work roster. There was also considerable progress made on a new IceTop snow-depth sensor project, documented in this image. […]

Week 51 at the Pole

Posted on December 30, 2016 by Jean DeMerit

Last week, Christmas was celebrated in many parts of the world, and that includes the South Pole. They had a makeshift “cargo” tree, presents for the winterovers, a fancy dinner—complete with a printed menu and assorted European desserts, and a party in the gym. […]

Week 50 at the Pole

Posted on December 28, 2016 by Jean DeMerit

It might be cold, but it’s summer at the South Pole, and the sun was out in full force, captured in this image of the IceCube Lab (ICL) with a striking mass of clouds cutting a swath through the sky. […]

IceCube welcomes Tintin to the South Pole

Posted on December 22, 2016 by Silvia Bravo

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The IceCube team in Brussels has been getting ready for a special deployment to the South Pole. On December 11, Gwen de Wasseige, a graduate student at the Interuniversity Institute for High Energy Physics (IIHE), left Belgium for Antarctica, to take part in the austral summer maintenance and operations activities at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. However, she was not flying on her own but in the company of one of the most famous Belgians of all time, Tintin. […]

Everything you always wanted to know about the IceCube detector

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Silvia Bravo

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For the first time, the IceCube Collaboration is making public every detail of the only cubic-kilometer neutrino detector to date, from a flasher board in the digital optical modules—aka DOMs—to the calibration processes that allow researchers to measure the properties of neutrinos, or to the IceCube Live website that IceCubers use to monitor what is going on in the detector. The publication, over 70 pages long, has just been submitted to the Journal of Instrumentation. […]