Monday 11 April 2011

Neutrinos in IceCube

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory (or simply IceCube) is a neutrino telescope constructed at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. Similar to its predecessor, the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA), IceCube contains thousands of spherical optical sensors called Digital Optical Modules (DOMs), each with a photomultiplier tube (PMT) and a single board data acquisition computer which sends digital data to the counting house on the surface above the array. More http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IceCube_Neutrino_Observatory
"IceCube, which was completed in December 2010, is a kilometer-cubed array of photodetectors that have been drilled down into the Antarctic ice cap... The IceCube team compared 13 months of their data (collected when the array was half finished) to observations of 117 Gamma-Ray Bursts measured independently over the same time period. Contrary to expectations, no high-energy neutrinos were detected within a half-hour of each GRB. Theorists may need to rethink their models of GRBs, as well as look for other possible sources for the highest energy cosmic rays." This is what Michael Schirber writes in
http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.141101