The 30th International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics (Neutrino 2022), the biggest conference on neutrino physics, concluded last Saturday after running from May 30–June 4. The meeting was held in Seoul, Korea, for the first time and was hosted by the Korean Institute for Advanced Study, the Institute for Basic Science, and the Korean Physical Society. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the conference took place online.
A total of almost 1,400 participants representing 44 countries converged on the virtual spaces to learn about exciting discoveries and the future of neutrino physics. This year was also extra-special, as it marked the 50th anniversary of this biennially held meeting. Chris Quigg of Fermilab gave the opening talk where he detailed the history of the conference, which started in 1972 in Hungary.
The IceCube Collaboration had a strong showing this year, with plenary talks from three IceCube collaborators and 44 virtual posters.
On Thursday, June 2, Tom Stuttard of the Niels Bohr Institute gave a talk titled “Particle physics with atmospheric neutrinos at IceCube/DeepCore,” with an overview of atmospheric neutrinos and neutrino oscillations. Stuttard also discussed some major improvements in the analysis chain, including calibration, systematic uncertainties, and simulations. Stuttard also highlighted improvements that were made in all areas of measurement and reported on the status of IceCube-Gen2.
The following day, Julia Tjus of Bochum University gave a high-level overview of IceCube in her talk titled “High-energy neutrino astronomy: A new window to the Universe.” Tjus highlighted the first detection of a diffuse, astrophysical flux in 2013 and, more recently, the first reported evidence of an association between gamma-ray emission from the blazar TXS 0506+056 and a high-energy neutrino.
Nahee Park of Queen’s University expanded on Julia’s presentation by discussing high-energy neutrino measurements in her talk titled “High-energy neutrino observations with IceCube.” Park was introduced by IceCube’s PI, Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who chaired the session.
Park described the different types of IceCube events, such as tracks and cascades, and highlighted recent events detected by IceCube, including the Glashow resonance. Park then went on to discuss the origin of astrophysical neutrinos, such as galactic and extragalactic sources for neutrinos. Finally, Park concluded her talk by reporting on the status of the IceCube Upgrade and IceCube-Gen2.
Neutrino 2024 will be held in Milan, Italy.