IceACT Monitoring and Data Analysis

The goal of the IceACT project is to establish an array of small ACTs deployed at the South Pole for neutrino detection, CR composition studies and high energy gamma ray detection. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole has detected these massless subatomic particles called neutrinos. These high-energy astronomical messengers provide us information to investigate the most violent astrophysical sources: events like exploding stars, gamma-ray bursts, and cataclysmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars. In particular, these neutrinos have no charge, and can travel across the universe without being scattered by interstellar magnetic fields. The main background for astrophysical neutrinos are muons and neutrinos produced in the Earth’s atmosphere by cosmic-ray air showers. The showers are produced by energetic neutrinos interacting with the air particles produces a wave front of Cherenkov radiation. To better identify these background neutrinos, IceCube constructed an imaging air Cherenkov telescope dubbed IceACT. This telescope detects atmospheric muons from the cosmic-ray air showers and can independently calibrate the angular reconstruction of IceCube to provide accurate results in future trials. In furthering our research on cosmic-ray muons, having an array of IceACTs will allow dramatic improvements in IceCube’s capability to measure both astrophysical neutrinos and very high energy cosmic rays from our galaxy

Monitoring the Night Sky for IceACT

The neutral subatomic neutrinos are astronomical messengers that can provide us information to investigate the most violent astrophysical sources: supernovas, gamma-ray bursts, and cataclysmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars. As these astrophysical neutrinos freely travel from their point of origin without being scattered by interstellar magnetic fields, we can analyze these particles by observing cosmic-ray air showers on the Earth’s atmosphere. These are produced by the energetic neutrinos by interacting with the air particles that produce a wavefront of Cherenkov radiation. To better identify these background neutrinos, IceCube, the South Pole Neutrino Observatory, constructed an imaging air Cherenkov telescopes otherwise known as IceACT, that are located at the South Pole. These telescopes contain the resources to detect the atmospheric muons produced by the cosmic-ray air showers. Furthermore, IceACT can independently calibrate the angular reconstruction of IceCube to provide accurate results in future trials. Our objective is to further conclude that the data obtained by IceACT supports the readings by IceCube by providing an analysis that the Antarctic night sky interferes of detecting any possible indications of Cherenkov radiation. Through analyzing a sample size of 30 detected stars, we found that only about 60% of the photometric measurements are explained by a linear fit. Furthermore, calibrating the transparency of the atmosphere for IceACT measurements can be done to an uncertainty of approximately 0.5 magnitudes

The OscSNS White Paper

There exists a need to address and resolve the growing evidence for short-baseline neutrino oscillations and the possible existence of sterile neutrinos. Such non-standard particles require a mass of $\sim 1$ eV/c$^2$, far above the mass scale associated with active neutrinos, and were first invoked to explain the LSND $\bar \nu_\mu \rightarrow \bar \nu_e$ appearance signal. More recently, the MiniBooNE experiment has reported a $2.8 \sigma$ excess of events in antineutrino mode consistent with neutrino oscillations and with the LSND antineutrino appearance signal. MiniBooNE also observed a $3.4 \sigma$ excess of events in their neutrino mode data. Lower than expected neutrino-induced event rates using calibrated radioactive sources and nuclear reactors can also be explained by the existence of sterile neutrinos. Fits to the world's neutrino and antineutrino data are consistent with sterile neutrinos at this $\sim 1$ eV/c$^2$ mass scale, although there is some tension between measurements from disappearance and appearance experiments. In addition to resolving this potential major extension of the Standard Model, the existence of sterile neutrinos will impact design and planning for all future neutrino experiments. It should be an extremely high priority to conclusively establish if such unexpected light sterile neutrinos exist. The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, built to usher in a new era in neutron research, provides a unique opportunity for US science to perform a definitive world-class search for sterile neutrinos.Comment: This white paper is submitted as part of the SNOWMASS planning proces

Measurement of the antineutrino neutral-current elastic differential cross section

arXiv:1309.7257v1 [hep-ex

First Measurement of Monoenergetic Muon Neutrino Charged Current Interactions

We report the first measurement of monoenergetic muon neutrino charged current interactions. MiniBooNE has isolated 236 MeV muon neutrino events originating from charged kaon decay at rest ($K^+ \rightarrow \mu^+ \nu_\mu$) at the NuMI beamline absorber. These signal $\nu_\mu$-carbon events are distinguished from primarily pion decay in flight $\nu_\mu$ and $\overline{\nu}_\mu$ backgrounds produced at the target station and decay pipe using their arrival time and reconstructed muon energy. The significance of the signal observation is at the 3.9$\sigma$ level. The muon kinetic energy, neutrino-nucleus energy transfer ($\omega=E_\nu-E_\mu$), and total cross section for these events is extracted. This result is the first known-energy, weak-interaction-only probe of the nucleus to yield a measurement of $\omega$ using neutrinos, a quantity thus far only accessible through electron scattering.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Lorentz breaking Effective Field Theory and observational tests

Analogue models of gravity have provided an experimentally realizable test field for our ideas on quantum field theory in curved spacetimes but they have also inspired the investigation of possible departures from exact Lorentz invariance at microscopic scales. In this role they have joined, and sometime anticipated, several quantum gravity models characterized by Lorentz breaking phenomenology. A crucial difference between these speculations and other ones associated to quantum gravity scenarios, is the possibility to carry out observational and experimental tests which have nowadays led to a broad range of constraints on departures from Lorentz invariance. We shall review here the effective field theory approach to Lorentz breaking in the matter sector, present the constraints provided by the available observations and finally discuss the implications of the persisting uncertainty on the composition of the ultra high energy cosmic rays for the constraints on the higher order, analogue gravity inspired, Lorentz violations.Comment: 47 pages, 4 figures. Lecture Notes for the IX SIGRAV School on "Analogue Gravity", Como (Italy), May 2011. V.3. Typo corrected, references adde

Dark Matter Search in a Proton Beam Dump with MiniBooNE

6 pages, 7 figures6 pages, 7 figure