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Francis Halzen
Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center and Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
IceCube: Opening a New Window on the Universe from the South Pole
The IceCube project has transformed a cubic kilometer of natural
Antarctic ice into a neutrino detector. The instrument detects more
than 100,000 neutrinos per year in the GeV to PeV energy range. Among
those, we have isolated a flux of high-energy neutrinos of cosmic
origin. We will explore the IceCube telescope and the significance of
the discovery of cosmic neutrinos. We recently identified their first
source: alerted by IceCube on September 22, 2017, several astronomical
telescopes pinpointed a flaring galaxy powered by an active
supermassive black hole, as the source of a cosmic neutrino with an
energy of 290 TeV. Most importantly, the large cosmic neutrino flux
observed implies that the Universe's energy density in high-energy
neutrinos is close to that in gamma rays, suggesting that the sources
are connected and that a multitude of astronomical objects await
discovery.
Francis Halzen
is a Belgian-American particle physicist,
and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been
the pricipal investigator for the AMANDA and IceCube projects.
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