High-energy Neutrinos confirmed by IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica

Recent observation of these particles was carried out with thousands of optical sensors resting in the murky abyssal depths beneath the Antarctic ice of the South Pole.

The evidence is important because it heralds a new form of astronomy using neutrinos, the almost massless high-energy particles generated in nature’s accelerators: black holes, massive exploding stars and the energetic cores of galaxies.

According to the researchers, the finding of these particles not only confirms that they exist, but also offers information of where cosmic rays come from. Eventually some produce pions, neutrinos and photons. The IceCube Collaboration, a large worldwide consortium headquartered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has taken on the huge challenge of sifting through a mass of observations to identify perhaps a few dozen of the highest-energy neutrinos that have traveled from sources in the Milky Way and beyond our galaxy. When that happens the neutrino generates a particle called a muon.

Cosmic neutrinos are such an enticing target because they haven’t changed since leaving their source.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is made up of 86 shafts that are dug 8,000 feet deep into the ice near the Earth’s South Pole.

The Earth’s body actually filters out a good deal of background muons generated upon cosmic rays’ impact with our atmosphere.

“It is not quite CMS and ATLAS, but this is as close to an independent confirmation as one can get with a single instrument”.

Scientists said that when these samples are combined with previous IceCube measurements then they allow the most accurate measurements till date about the energy spectrum and composition of the extraterrestrial neutrino flux. However, only about 20 of those neutrino events were clocked at energy levels indicative of astrophysical or cosmic sources. This path could, in theory, be used to identify where the neutrino comes from. All shafts have detectors whose primary job is looking for telltale lights emitted by high-energy particles digging through their surrounding ice. The data has been called an “unequivocal signal” for astrophysical neutrinos that are ultra high-energy particles, which have passed through space unobstructed by planets, stars, galaxies, clouds of interstellar dust or magnetic fields.

A representation of one of the 21 highest-energy neutrinos detected in the survey on October. 28, 2010. Dr. Vladimir Papitashvili of the NSF’s Division of Polar Programs said that the new discoveries made by the IceCube are paving way for a new era in particle physics. This confirmed the presence of the astrophysical neutrinos and cosmic neutrinos after investigating through the billions of subatomic particles in the observatory’s detectors.

Albrecht Karle from UW-Madison thinks that this suggests that numerous potential sources for high-energy neutrinos have origins beyond the Milky Way.

Neutrinos observed from the IceCube Observatory showed identical scans to those seen while the observatory captured neutrinos from the Southern Hemisphere.