A Search for Point Sources with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

by Dr Jonathan Dumm (University of Wisconsin)

Thursday Feb 24, 2011, 3:30 PM → 4:30 PM Pacific/Honolulu

WAT 112

Construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory was only recently completed on Dec 18, 2010. IceCube is the first 1km3 detector of it's kind. Deep in the ice under the South Pole, IceCube looks for rare high energy neutrino interactions (> ~100 GeV). While the observatory was under construction for 5 years, data was being collected and analyzed continuously. Some of the science highlights so far include searches for astrophysical neutrinos, a measurement of the atmospheric neutrino spectrum, observation of a cosmic ray anisotropy in the southern hemisphere, and indirect searches for dark matter. This talk will describe IceCube, the motivations for building such a detector, and highlight recent results in the effort to find point-like sources of astrophysical neutrinos.