News

What the atmospheric muon flux in IceCube can tell us about cosmic rays, or even about particle interactions

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Silvia Bravo

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In a new study presented a few days ago, the IceCube Collaboration reports the potential of atmospheric muons detected in IceCube to help our understanding of important properties of cosmic rays in a wide range of energies. These muons are also shown to be useful for investigating systematic uncertainties in neutrino studies in IceCube. Measurements of the composition of primary cosmic rays, the high-energy spectrum of muons, and the prompt flux are three of the highlights of this paper, which was submitted last Friday to Astroparticle Physics. […]

Week 24 at the Pole

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Jean DeMerit

If you blur your vision slightly, the green tablecloth might be mistaken as grass and the entire scene as one of a summertime outdoor picnic. But it’s still winter at the South Pole—midwinter to be precise, one of several milestones they traditionally celebrate with a special dinner. […]

Week 23 at the Pole

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Jean DeMerit

South Pole … greenhouse? That’s right. One of the coldest places on the planet hosts a very nice, warm greenhouse, replete with tomatoes and leafy greens. It’s a jungle in there. […]

Week 22 at the Pole

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Jean DeMerit

They’re getting fancy at the Pole—wide angles showing off curves and long exposures leaving star trails in the night sky. With its long stretch of darkness broken only by spells of auroras or the rising of a sunlike moon, winter makes the South Pole a captivating place. […]

An IceCube neutrino alert triggers the discovery of a supernova

Posted on June 11, 2015 by Silvia Bravo

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On March 30, 2012, IceCube detected two high-energy neutrino events. IceCube immediately sent an alert to several optical and X-ray telescopes—the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE), the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) and the Swift satellite—and a core-collapse supernova was discovered in the PTF images. However, physicists have shown that this was a coincidental discovery and that this supernova is not likely to be the source of the neutrinos in IceCube. These results have been submitted today to the Astrophysical Journal and are the outcome of a joint study between the IceCube Collaboration and members of the PTF Collaboration, the Swift Collaboration and the Pan-STARRS1 Science Consortium. […]

A search for dark matter in the galactic center

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Silvia Bravo

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In a new analysis of the IceCube Collaboration, a search for dark matter annihilation at the Galactic Center is presented using data from May 2010 to May 2011. The highest density of dark matter in the Milky Way is anticipated to concentrate in its center. Dark-matter self-annihilation should then produce a flux of muon neutrinos and other particles that peaks in the direction of this region, which is seen in the Southern Hemisphere by IceCube. The search did not find a neutrino excess, and the researchers have set new limits on the dark-matter self-annihilation cross section. These results have been submitted today to European Physical Journal C. […]