IceCube: The Search for the Sources of the Cosmic Rays
by
Prof.Francis Halzen(Univ. of Wisconsin)
→
Pacific/Honolulu
Description
A century after their discovery the sources of the cosmic rays remain a mystery. The emission of high energy neutrinos is a smoking gun for the acceleration of cosmic rays and their detection has motivated the construction of kilometer-scale neutrino detectors. We will review the status of the search for cosmic neutrinos at a time when the first such instrument, IceCube, is almost fully commissioned. IceCube transforms 1 gigaton of natural Antarctic ice into a particle detector. We will discuss the analysis of neutrino and muon(!) skymaps obtained during one year of IceCube operation with half of its sensors deployed.
