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1.
Building on the technological success of the IceCube neutrino telescope, we outline a prospective low-energy extension that utilizes the clear ice of the South Pole. Aiming at a 10 Mton effective volume and a 10 MeV threshold, the detector would provide sufficient sensitivity to detect neutrino bursts from core-collapse supernovae (SNe) in nearby galaxies. The detector geometry and required density of instrumentation are discussed along with the requirements to control the various sources of background, such as solar neutrinos. In particular, the suppression of spallation events induced by atmospheric muons poses a challenge that will need to be addressed. Assuming this background can be controlled, we find that the resulting detector will be able to detect SNe from beyond 10 Mpc, delivering between 10 and 41 regular core-collapse SN detections per decade. It would further allow to study more speculative phenomena, such as optically dark (failed) SNe, where the collapse proceeds directly to a black hole, at a detection rate similar to that of regular SNe. We find that the biggest technological challenge lies in the required number of large area photo-sensors, with simultaneous strict limits on the allowed noise rates. If both can be realized, the detector concept we present will reach the required sensitivity with a comparatively small construction effort and hence offers a route to future routine observations of SNe with neutrinos.  相似文献   

2.
Identifying the accelerators that produce the Galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays has been a priority mission of several generations of high energy gamma ray and neutrino telescopes; success has been elusive so far. Detecting the gamma-ray and neutrino fluxes associated with cosmic rays reaches a new watershed with the completion of IceCube, the first neutrino detector with sensitivity to the anticipated fluxes, and the construction of CTA, a ground-based gamma ray detector that will map and study candidate sources with unprecedented precision. In this paper, we revisit the prospects for revealing the sources of the cosmic rays by a multiwavelength approach; after reviewing the methods, we discuss supernova remnants, gamma ray bursts, active galaxies and GZK neutrinos in some detail.  相似文献   

3.
Although kilometer-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube are discovery instruments, their conceptual design is very much anchored to the observational fact that Nature produces protons and photons with energies in excess of 1020 eV and 1013 eV, respectively. The puzzle of where and how Nature accelerates the highest energy cosmic particles is unresolved almost a century after their discovery. From energetics considerations we anticipate on the order of 10–100 neutrino events per kilometer squared per year pointing back at the source(s) of both galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays. In this context, we discuss the results of the AMANDA and IceCube neutrino telescopes which will deliver a kilometer-square-year of data over the next 3 years.  相似文献   

4.
《Astroparticle Physics》2012,35(10):615-624
The IceCube neutrino observatory in operation at the South Pole, Antarctica, comprises three distinct components: a large buried array for ultrahigh energy neutrino detection, a surface air shower array, and a new buried component called DeepCore. DeepCore was designed to lower the IceCube neutrino energy threshold by over an order of magnitude, to energies as low as about 10 GeV. DeepCore is situated primarily 2100 m below the surface of the icecap at the South Pole, at the bottom center of the existing IceCube array, and began taking physics data in May 2010. Its location takes advantage of the exceptionally clear ice at those depths and allows it to use the surrounding IceCube detector as a highly efficient active veto against the principal background of downward-going muons produced in cosmic-ray air showers. DeepCore has a module density roughly five times higher than that of the standard IceCube array, and uses photomultiplier tubes with a new photocathode featuring a quantum efficiency about 35% higher than standard IceCube PMTs. Taken together, these features of DeepCore will increase IceCube’s sensitivity to neutrinos from WIMP dark matter annihilations, atmospheric neutrino oscillations, galactic supernova neutrinos, and point sources of neutrinos in the northern and southern skies. In this paper we describe the design and initial performance of DeepCore.  相似文献   

5.
Cherenkov telescopes have the capability of detecting high energy tau neutrinos in the energy range of 1–1000 PeV by searching for very inclined showers. If a tau lepton, produced by a tau neutrino, escapes from the Earth or a mountain, it will decay and initiate a shower in the air which can be detected by an air shower fluorescence or Cherenkov telescope. In this paper, we present detailed Monte Carlo simulations of corresponding event rates for the VERITAS and two proposed Cherenkov Telescope Array sites: Meteor Crater and Yavapai Ranch, which use representative AGN neutrino flux models and take into account topographic conditions of the detector sites. The calculated neutrino sensitivities depend on the observation time and the shape of the energy spectrum, but in some cases are comparable or even better than corresponding neutrino sensitivities of the IceCube detector. For VERITAS and the considered Cherenkov Telescope Array sites the expected neutrino sensitivities are up to factor 3 higher than for the MAGIC site because of the presence of surrounding mountains.  相似文献   

6.
The Fermi γ-ray space telescope reported the observation of several Galactic supernova remnants recently, with the γ-ray spectra well described by hadronic pp collisions. The possible neutrino emissions from these Fermi detected supernova remnants are discussed in this work, assuming the hadronic origin of the γ-ray emission. The muon event rates induced by the neutrinos from these supernova remnants on typical km3 neutrino telescopes, such as the IceCube and the KM3NeT, are calculated. The results show that for most of these supernova remnants the neutrino signals are too weak to be detected by the on-going or up-coming neutrino experiment. Only for the TeV bright sources RX J1713.7-3946 and possibly W28 the neutrino signals can be comparable with the atmospheric background in the TeV region, if the protons can be accelerated to very high energies. The northern hemisphere based neutrino telescope might detect the neutrinos from these two sources.  相似文献   

7.
Neutrino telescopes are moving steadily toward the goal of detecting astrophysical neutrinos from the most powerful galactic and extragalactic sources. Here we describe analysis methods to search for high energy point-like neutrino sources using detectors deep in the ice or sea. We simulate an ideal cubic kilometer detector based on real world performance of existing detectors such as AMANDA, IceCube, and ANTARES. An unbinned likelihood ratio method is applied, making use of the point spread function and energy distribution of simulated neutrino signal events to separate them from the background of atmospheric neutrinos produced by cosmic ray showers. The unbinned point source analyses are shown to perform better than binned searches and, depending on the source spectral index, the use of energy information is shown to improve discovery potential by almost a factor of two.  相似文献   

8.
Gamma-ray burst analyses at neutrino telescopes are typically based on diffuse or stacked (i.e., aggregated) neutrino fluxes, because the number of events expected from a single burst is small. The interpretation of aggregated flux limits implies new systematics not present for a single burst, such as by the integration over parameter distributions (diffuse fluxes), or by the low statistics in small burst samples (stacked fluxes). We simulate parameter distributions with a Monte Carlo method computing the spectra burst by burst, as compared to a conventional Monte Carlo integration. With this approach, we can predict the behavior of the flux in the diffuse limit as well as in low statistics stacking samples, such as used in recent IceCube data analyses. We also include the flavor composition at the detector (ratio between muon tracks and cascades) into our considerations. We demonstrate that the spectral features, such as a characteristic multi-peak structure coming from photohadronic interactions, flavor mixing, and magnetic field effects, are typically present even in diffuse neutrino fluxes if only the redshift distribution of the sources is considered, with z ? 1 dominating the neutrino flux. On the other hand, we show that variations of the Lorentz boost can only be interpreted in a model-dependent way, and can be used as a model discriminator. For example, we illustrate that the observation of spectral features in aggregated fluxes will disfavor the commonly used assumption that bursts with small Lorentz factors dominate the neutrino flux, whereas it will be consistent with the hypothesis that the bursts have similar properties in the comoving frame.  相似文献   

9.
Detecting neutrinos associated with the still enigmatic sources of cosmic rays has reached a new watershed with the completion of IceCube, the first detector with sensitivity to the anticipated fluxes. In this review, we will briefly revisit the rationale for constructing kilometer-scale neutrino detectors and summarize the status of the field.  相似文献   

10.
In experiments that are aimed at detecting astrophysical sources such as neutrino telescopes, one usually performs a search over a continuous parameter space (e.g. the angular coordinates of the sky, and possibly time), looking for the most significant deviation from the background hypothesis. Such a procedure inherently involves a “look elsewhere effect”, namely, the possibility for a signal-like fluctuation to appear anywhere within the search range. Correctly estimating the p-value of a given observation thus requires repeated simulations of the entire search, a procedure that may be prohibitively expansive in terms of CPU resources. Recent results from the theory of random fields provide powerful tools which may be used to alleviate this difficulty, in a wide range of applications. We review those results and discuss their implementation, with a detailed example applied for neutrino point source analysis in the IceCube experiment.  相似文献   

11.
The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) will come on line with unprecedented radio sensitivity and resolution between 10 and 240 MHz. Such a system will provide a factor of 10–30 improvement in sensitivity in the pursuit of the weak radio emission from extrasolar planets. To date, previous examinations of extrasolar planetary systems with the most advanced radio telescopes have yielded a negative result. However, the improvement in sensitivity by LOFAR over current systems will increase the likelihood of extrasolar planet detection in the radio. We apply radiometric models derived previously from the study of planets in our solar system to the known extrasolar planets, and demonstrate that approximately 3–5 of them should emit in the proper frequency range and with enough power to possibly become detectable at Earth with LOFAR.  相似文献   

12.
This paper describes the aims, objectives and first results of the observational program for the study of distant core-collapse supernovae (SNe) with redshifts z ≲ 0.3. This work is done within the framework of an international cooperation program on the SNe monitoring at the 6-m BTA telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and other telescopes. We study both the early phases of events (SN type determination, redshift estimation, and a search for manifestations of a wind envelope), and the nebular phase (the effects of explosion asymmetry). The SNe, associated with cosmic gamma-ray bursts are of particular interest. An interpretation of our observational data along with the data obtained on other telescopes is used to test the existing theoretical models of both the SN explosion, and the surrounding circumstellar medium. In 2009 we observed 30 objects; the spectra were obtained for 12 of them. We determined the types, phases after maximum, and redshifts for five SNe (SN 2009db, SN 2009dy, SN 2009dw, SN 2009ew, SN 2009ji). Based on the obtained photometric data a discovery of two more SNe was confirmed (SN 2009bx and SN 2009cb). A study of two type II supernovae in the nebular phase (SN 2008gz and SN 2008in) is finalized, four more objects (SN 2008iy, SN 2009ay, SN 2009bw, SN 2009de) are currently monitored.  相似文献   

13.
The current supernova detection technique used in IceCube relies on the sudden deviation of the summed photomultiplier noise rate from its nominal value during the neutrino burst, making IceCube a ≈3 Megaton effective detection volume - class supernova detector. While galactic supernovae can be resolved with this technique, the supernova neutrino emission spectrum remains unconstrained and thus presents a limited potential for the topics related to supernova core collapse models.The paper elaborates analytically on the capabilities of IceCube to detect supernovae through the analysis of hits in the detector correlated in space and time. These arise from supernova neutrinos interacting in the instrumented detector volume along single strings. Although the effective detection volume for such coincident hits is much smaller (?35 kton, about the scale of SuperK), a wealth of information is obtained due to the comparatively low rate of coincident noise hits. We demonstrate that a neutrino flux from a core collapse supernova will produce a signature enabling the resolution of rough spectral features and, in the case of a strong signal, providing indication on its location.We further discuss the enhanced potential of a rather modest detector extension, a denser array in the center of IceCube, within our one dimensional analytic calculation framework. Such an extension would enable the exploration of the neutrino sky above a few GeV and the detection of supernovae up to a few 100’s of kilo parsec. However, a 3-4 Mpc detection distance, necessary for routine supernova detection, demands a significant increase of the effective detection volume and can be obtained only with a more ambitious instrument, particularly the boosting of sensor parameters such as the quantum efficiency and light collection area.  相似文献   

14.
15.
We study the spectral energy distribution of gamma rays and neutrinos in the precessing microquasar SS433 as a result of pp interactions within its dark jets. Gamma-ray absorption due to interactions with matter of the extended disc and of the star is found to be important, as well as absorption caused by the ultraviolet and mid-infrared radiation from the equatorial envelopment. We analyse the range of precessional phases for which this attenuation is at a minimum and the chances for detection of a gamma-ray signal are enhanced. The power of relativistic protons in the jets, a free parameter of the model, is constrained by HEGRA data. This imposes limits on the gamma-ray fluxes to be detected with instruments such as GLAST, VERITAS and MAGIC II. A future detection of high-energy neutrinos with cubic kilometre telescopes such as IceCube would also yield important information about acceleration mechanisms that may take place in the dark jets. Overall, the determination of the ratio of gamma-ray to neutrino flux will result in a key observational tool to clarify the physics of heavy jets.  相似文献   

16.
Gamma ray burst (GRB) fireballs provide one of very few astrophysical environments where one can contemplate the acceleration of cosmic rays to energies that exceed 1020 eV. The assumption that GRBs are the sources of the observed cosmic rays generates a calculable flux of neutrinos produced when the protons interact with fireball photons. With data taken during construction IceCube has already reached a sensitivity to observe neutrinos produced in temporal coincidence with individual GRBs provided that they are the sources of the observed extra-galactic cosmic rays. We here point out that the GRB origin of cosmic rays is also challenged by the IceCube upper limit on a possible diffuse flux of cosmic neutrinos which should not be exceeded by the flux produced by all GRB over Hubble time. Our alternative approach has the advantage of directly relating the diffuse flux produced by all GRBs to measurements of the cosmic ray flux. It also generates both the neutrino flux produced by the sources and the associated cosmogenic neutrino flux in a synergetic way.  相似文献   

17.
In the forthcoming months, the KamLAND experiment will probe the parameter space of the solar large mixing angle MSW solution as the origin of the solar neutrino deficit with ’s from distant nuclear reactors. If however the solution realized in nature is such that Δm2sol2×10−4 eV2 (thereafter named the HLMA region), KamLAND will only observe a rate suppression but no spectral distortion and hence it will not have the optimal sensitivity to measure the mixing parameters. In this case, we propose a new medium baseline reactor experiment located at Heilbronn (Germany) to pin down the precise value of the solar mixing parameters. In this paper, we present the Heilbronn detector site, we calculate the interaction rate and the positron spectrum expected from the surrounding nuclear power plants. We also discuss the sensitivity of such an experiment to |Ue3| in both normal and inverted neutrino mass hierarchy scenarios. We then outline the detector design, estimate background signals induced by natural radioactivity as well as by in situ cosmic ray muon interaction, and discuss a strategy to detect the anti-neutrino signal ‘free of background’.  相似文献   

18.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has discovered a diffuse all-flavor flux of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. However, the corresponding astrophysical sources have not yet been identified. Neither significant point sources nor significant angular correlations of event directions have been observed by IceCube or other instruments to date. We present a new method to interpret the non-observation of angular correlations in terms of exclusions on the strength and number of point-like neutrino sources in generic astrophysical scenarios. Additionally, we constrain the presence of these sources taking into account the measurement of the diffuse high-energy neutrino flux by IceCube. We apply the method to two types of astrophysically motivated source count distributions: The first type is obtained by considering the cosmological evolution of the co-moving density of active galaxies, while the second type is directly derived from the gamma ray source count distribution observed by Fermi-LAT. As a result, we constrain the possible parameter space for both types of source count distributions.  相似文献   

19.
We consider the possibility that the excess of cosmic rays near ∼1018 eV, reported by the AGASA and SUGAR groups from the direction of the Galactic Centre, is caused by a young, very fast pulsar in the high-density medium. The pulsar accelerates iron nuclei to energies ∼1020 eV, as postulated by the Galactic models for the origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays. The iron nuclei, about 1 yr after pulsar formation, leave the supernova envelope without energy losses and diffuse through the dense central region of the Galaxy. Some of them collide with the background matter creating neutrons (from disintegration of Fe), neutrinos and gamma-rays (in inelastic collisions). We suggest that neutrons produced at a specific time after the pulsar formation are responsible for the observed excess of cosmic rays at ∼1018 eV. From normalization of the calculated neutron flux to the one observed in the cosmic ray excess, we predict the neutrino and gamma-ray fluxes. It has been found that the 1 km2 neutrino detector of the IceCube type should detect from a few up to several events per year from the Galactic Centre, depending on the parameters of the considered model. Moreover, future systems of Cherenkov telescopes (CANGAROO III, HESS, VERITAS) should be able to observe  1–10 TeV  gamma-rays from the Galactic Centre if the pulsar was created inside a huge molecular cloud about  3–10×103 yr  ago.  相似文献   

20.
Our knowledge of the high-energy universe is undergoing a period of rapid change as new astronomical detectors of high-energy radiation start to operate at their design sensitivities. Now is a boomtime for high-energy astrophysics, with new discoveries from Swift and HESS, results from MAGIC and VERITAS starting to be reported, the upcoming launches of the γ-ray space telescopes GLAST and AGILE, and anticipated data releases from IceCube and Auger. A formalism for calculating statistical properties of cosmological γ-ray sources is presented. Application is made to model calculations of the statistical distributions of γ-ray and neutrino emission from (i) beamed sources, specifically, long-duration GRBs, blazars, and extragalactic microquasars, and (ii) unbeamed sources, including normal galaxies, starburst galaxies and clusters. Expressions for the integrated intensities of faint beamed and unbeamed high-energy radiation sources are also derived. A toy model for the background intensity of radiation from dark-matter annihilation taking place in the early universe is constructed. Estimates for the γ-ray fluxes of local group galaxies, starburst, and infrared luminous galaxies are briefly reviewed. Because the brightest extragalactic γ-ray sources are flaring sources, and these are the best targets for sources of PeV–EeV neutrinos and ultra-high energy cosmic rays, rapidly slewing all-sky telescopes like MAGIC and an all-sky γ-ray observatory beyond Milagro will be crucial for optimal science return in the multi-messenger age.  相似文献   

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