Speaker
Seon-Hee Seo
(Stockholm University)
Description
IceCube is a cubic kilometer size neutrino telescope operating in the
deep ice at the South Pole. Its scientific goals include searching for tau neutrinos of extraterrestrial origin. Although astrophysical source models typically predict only electron and muon neutrino production, after standard neutrino oscillations over astrophysical distances electron, muon and tau neutrinos are expected to arrive at the detector in equal numbers.
Ultra high energy (UHE) tau neutrinos are expected to leave identifiable signatures
inside the detection volume due both to their finite lifetime and their rich array of decay channels.
By characterizing these distinctive signatures we hope to distinguish UHE tau neutrinos from muon and electron neutrinos. In addition, lower energy tau
neutrinos can produce a distinctive double pulse waveform in individual IceCube detector modules that will distinguish these interactions from other neutrino
interactions producing simpler hadronic or electromagnetic showers.
Exclusively identified tau neutrinos will have negligible atmospheric neutrino background and as such could serve as a clean signature of cosmological origin.
Primary author
Seon-Hee Seo
(Stockholm University)
