1. Building ICECUBE A Neutrino Telescope at the South Pole
Outline:
Neutrinos – What are they, where do they come from, what can they tell us
Neutrino Telescope – What it is, How it works
South Pole – Why at the south pole
Building IceCube – DOMs, Drilling Holes
Recent trip to the South Pole
Jeff Cherwinka
University of Wisconsin
Triad Project Management
South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006

2. South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006
What is a Neutrino?
Stable particle, but not part of Atom
No Charge, ½ integer Spin, Very very little Mass
Lepton Family:
Electon e-, Electon Neutrino e-
Muon , Muon Neutrino 
Tau , Tau Neutrino 
They do not interact much
There are a lot of them around
Most People are familiar with Protons, Electron and Neutrons because
Our world is made up of these particles… they interact with us
Neutrinos are also out there… but they do not interact much
South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006

3. Where do Neutrinos come from?
The Big Bang
 = 330 / cm3
E = eV
Source of  ’s
Where do Neutrinos come from?
Super Nova
SN1987
EMeV
The Sun e
Earth = 6 x 1010  / cm2s
E 0.1 – 20 MeV
Atmospheric ’s
e,,e,
1 /cm2s
E0.1– 100 GeV - -
Human Body
 = 340 x 106/day
The greek letter nu is use as the symbol for a neutrino
There are about 340 million neutrinos a day going through each of us every day
Most of these are produced in nuclear reaction in the sun
Neutrinos are also produced by radioactivity in the earth, and nuclear reactions in space
There are “manmade” neutrinos from nuclear power plants and particle accelerators
Some neutrinos interact in the atmosphere and create particle showers
Accelerators
E ~ 0.3 – 30 GeV
Nuclear Reactors
  few MeV
Earth’s Radioactivity
 6 x 106/cm2s
South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006
 = Neutrinos per time (Flux)  = Energy of Neutrino (1MeV = 1.6x10-13Joules)

4. South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006
Telescopes
Helps you see things more clearly by improving your power of “sight”
Traditional telescopes use visible light
We can also “see” in other frequencies: infrared, radio, X-ray
We can “see” with particles: Electron microscopes
Telescopes are directional
IceCube is a Neutrino Telescope
What does telescope mean?
South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006

5. Crab Nebula through different Telescopes
Visible
Infrared
X-rays
Neutrinos ?
Different ways of looking at something can give different information
The X-ray image show some structure in the nebula that the other images do not

6. Why a Neutrino Telescope?
Light does not go far
Absorbed and scattered by dust and gases
Interaction with microwave background
Charged particles do not go straight
Interaction with other matter
Bent by magnetic fields
Neutrinos can look places you can not see with light of charged particles
Neutrinos have little interaction ….they go far & straight ……..BUT they are hard to detect
South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006

7. South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006
What are we looking for?
Other detectors have seen evidence of very high energy particles… Source is unknown
Air shower detectors have seen very high energy cosmic rays.
There are no known phenomena to explain energy levels as high as have been seen
South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006

8. One idea is that these particles are made in cosmic accelerators
It take high fields and large distances to make high energy particles
Cosmic Accelerators

9. South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006
What are we looking for?
Dark Matter – WIMP Capture and Annihilation c
Earth
Sun nm
Many observations suggest there is a lot of matter
in the universe that does not produce light so we can not see it.
Other measurements suggest this dark matter is not made up
Of protons and neutrons like the “baryonic” matter we are used to.
One possible componet for this dark matter are particals named
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles WIMPs
WIMPs might be captured by the mass of the sun and interact there
Producing lots of medium energy neutrinos with more energy than the
Neutrinos produced by solar nuclear reactions
Detector
South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006

10. South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006
What are we looking for?
Super Nova SN1987A has already been seen!
Neutrinos escape supernova hours before light
Neutrino detectors have already seen Super Nova
More powerful detectors migth provide early detection of Super Nova
Allowing the scientific community to focus more instruments on
The early development of these cataclismic events
South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006

11. What Will We Find? Expect Surprises!
The most interesting thing we see is likely to be unexpected.
Everytime we look at the universe in a new way we are surprised
South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006

12. How do you “see” a Neutrino
You can detect a neutrino when it interacts and creates a charged particle
If the charged particle is traveling through a transparent material you can see the Cerenkov light it gives off
Neutrinos are hard to detect, but not impossible
You detect them indirectly by seeing the particles given off by an interaction
South Pole Science Talk – Jeff Cherwinka, Dec 10th, 2006