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

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

Where do Neutrinos come from? The Big Bang  = 330 / cm3 E = 0.0004 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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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