Dawn Williams “The IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the Beginning of Neutrino Astrophysics”

Stanford University
APPLIED PHYSICS/PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM

Tuesday, May 22, 2018
4:30 p.m. on campus in Hewlett Teaching Center, Rm. 201

Dawn Williams
University of Alabama

“The IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the Beginning of Neutrino Astrophysics”

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is the world’s largest neutrino detector, instrumenting a cubic kilometer of ice at the geographic South Pole. IceCube was designed to detect high-energy astrophysical neutrinos from potential cosmic ray acceleration sites such as active galactic nuclei, gamma ray bursts and supernova remnants. IceCube announced the detection of a diffuse flux of astrophysical neutrinos in 2013, including the highest energy neutrinos ever detected. The sources of these neutrinos are as yet unknown, and IceCube continues to collect data and to collaborate with multi messenger partners in order to explore the neutrino sky. I will discuss the latest results from IceCube and discuss prospects for future upgrades and expansions of the detector.