DOCSLIB.ORG

Curriculum Vitæ Et Studiorum

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Curriculum Vitæ Et Studiorum CURRICULUM VITÆ ET STUDIORUM Paolo Desiati June 2007 1 Personal Data Name : P aolo Desiati Date=P lace of Birth : 7 July 1969; F irenze (Italy) Office Address : Network222 Building 5409 222 W est W ashington Av: Madison; W I 53703; U:S:A: Department of P hysics; Chamberlin Hall 4616 University of W isconsin; 1150 University Av Madison; W I 53706; U:S:A: T elephone Number : +1 − 608 − 890 − 0546 F ax Number : +1 − 608 − 262 − 2309 email : desiati@icecube:wisc:edu URL : http : ==icecube:wisc:edu= ∼ desiati 2 Education and Research Positions 1985-1989 High School study at Liceo Scientifico in Firenze, Italy 1989-1994 University study at the University of Florence, Faculty of Physics, in Firenze, Italy 1993-1994 Undergraduate research at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, Italy 1994-1995 Military Service in the Italian Army 1996-1999 PhD study at the University of Roma La Sapienza, Faculty of Physics, in Roma, Italy 1999-2001 Post-Doc research at the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) in Zeuthen (Berlin), Germany 2001-2003 Research Associate position at the Physics Department of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, U.S.A. 2003-2006 Assistant Researcher position at the Physics Department of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, U.S.A. 2006-present Associate Researcher position at the Physics Department of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, U.S.A. 1 3 Grants and Fellowships • 1 year fellowship sponsored by INFN (Italian Nuclear Physics National Insti- tute) for undergraduate scientific research at Gran Sasso National Laboratory. National Competition. • 6 months collaboration contract at the Physics Department of the University of Florence. • 9 months grant by the Italian Fondazione Angelo della Riccia for graduate scien- tific research at the Pylos NESTOR Institute (Greece), logistic site of NESTOR neutrino telescope project. Not Accepted. • 2 year Reimar Lust¨ Stipendium grant by K¨orber Stiftung (Hamburg) for post- doc scientific research at DESY Zeuthen (Germany). European Competition. • 2 year CERN applied fellowship devoted in physics-related software development in LHCb experiment. Not accepted. 4 Coordination Activities 2001-2004 AMANDA Simulation Production Coordinator 2004-present IceCube Simulation and Offline Filtering Production Coordinator 2006-present IceCube Atmospheric Neutrino Working Group Coordinator 2006-present Member of the IceCube Trigger, Filter and Transmission Board 5 Studies and Research • RESEARCH ACTIVITY: June 2005-present Position: Associate Researcher appointment at University of Wisconsin, Madi- son. Experiment/Projects: my present activity in the IceCube Collaboration is the coordination of simulation data production and off-line data processing and filtering, and of the Atmospheric Neutrino Working Group, as part of the physics analysis task chart in the Collaboration. I am also member of the Trigger, Filtering and Transmission Board in IceCube. IceCube has developed a custom software framework and new simulation tools. The development of simulation software is a Collaboration-wide activity and my personal contribution is in the development of pieces of code necessary in the simulation chain, and in the testing of software functionality, including the comparison of simulation with experimental data, as part of a wide verification activity. In neutrino telescopes such as IceCube, we need to achieve a back- ground rejection of at least 106. This level of rejection forces us to simulate large quantity of background data, since the neutrino-generated event selection is strongly dependent on how well we know the background contamination at high processing levels. With Juan Carlos Diaz-Velez we have developed a flexible tool, based on python scripting language, which allows productions in a variety of batch systems and architecture environments throughout the Collaboration 2 Institutions in a scalable way. We can make transparently use of GRID Com- puting Systems or of Private Institutional Clusters, and we created an IceCube Distributed Computing System which efficiently handles simulation data gener- ation, data collection and data storage, with the aim of monitoring systems that checks on production status, network congestions and disk space availability. A continuous verification of simulation quality and a particular attention on the quality and efficiency of on-line and off-line data processing is the challenge to achieve high quality level of the data for physics analysis. As the coordinator of the Atmospheric Neutrino Working Group, the aim is to define analysis stretegies for the measurement of the atmospheric neutrino flux. This is the irreducible background for the search of high energy extraterrestrial neutrinos, but it is also the most abundant source of neutrinos recorded by a neutrino telescope. There are still open questions on the physics of atmospheric neutrino production (such as Kaon physics, charm physics, primary cosmic ray composition) which can be probed using a high statistics detailed measurement, also in conjunction with the IceTop surface array. A collaboration with the MIPP experiment, at Fermilab, in underway to achieve a measurement of the proton-nitrogen cross section relevant to describe the lowest part of the atmo- spheric neutrino energy spectrum. Another collaboration with Prof. Wahba at the Department of Statistics of the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, had, as main topic, determination of the the signal probability estimation with penal- ized likelihood method on weighted data. This statistical technique is relevant for the search of neutrino events among a high intensity background and was a new development of techniques already in use in statistics. As a member of the Trigger, Filtering and Transmission Board, I contribute in the coordination of the communication between the analyses working groups requirements and the detector operations priorities in an effort to maintain the detector stable and suitable for physics analyses. June 2003-2005 Position: Assistant Researcher appointment at University of Wisconsin, Madi- son. Activity: I have been responsible of Simulation Production also within AMANDA- II Collaboration, for which I developed a package of software tools (based on perl scripting language) able to make efficient use of the big computing power available at the University of Wisconsin. Easily extensible to use other batch systems this had became an official AMANDA simulation production software framework. I actively participated in analyses involving the experimental data available from AMANDA: such as the study of cosmic muon and atmospheric neutrino background, and analyses startegies to probe the contamination of high energy events from the decay of heavy mesons in the atmosphere. Another analysis I worked in, with an UW graduate student (You-Ren Wang), is the search for high energy neutrinos emitted by steady point sources, such as Supernova Remnants and Active Galactice Nuclei. An analysis has been completed with the data taken by AMANDA-II during the years 2000-02 and the results have been published on Physical Review D. I also participated in the search of high energy neutrinos in coincidence with Gamma Ray Bursts events in the northern hemisphere and of neutrinos from diffuse sources in the Universe. These analyses are challenging because they require a high background rejection 3 power (of the order of 106) in order to achieve a clean neutrino candidates sample. Data filtering a a good understanding of the detector response are essential in the interpretation of experimental data at high background rejection level. • POST-DOC RESEARCH: September 2001-May 2003 Position: Research Associate appointment at University of Wisconsin, Madi- son. Experiment/Project: AMANDA. Activity: I worked in comparing simulated with experimental data to study how we could improve the detector functionality simulation and to evaluate the experimental systematic uncertainties. I participated in the study of the Antarctic ice optical properties using the high quality reconstructed down-going muon intensity, and comparing these result with the ice properties directly mea- sured with in-situ light sources. A new implementation of the ice properties in the AMANDA simulation improved the agreement with the experimental data. I mentored summer students during the summer 2002 and 2003, on projects involving the detection of down-going muon flux with the new updated simula- tion implementation. The measurements of the cosmic muon angular and depth distribution and the study of AMANDA sensitivity for the detection of the un- known source of higher energy muons from decay of heavy charmed mesons in the atmosphere. Tutoring of graduate students during the initial phases of AMANDA-II analysis activity was occupying the rest of my time. June 1999-May 2001 Position: 2-year Post-Doc Grant Reimar Lust¨ Stipendium by K¨orber Stiftung at DESY-Zeuthen, Germany. Experiment/Project: AMANDA Activity: My main activity has been concentrated both on software and physics analysis. On the software side I have developed the first working revision of an on-line Control Program to control and monitor special Optical Modules called digitally controlled Analog Optical Modules (dAOM). dAOM's were a possible prototype of analog sensors to be used for the future IceCube Neutrino Telescope. The program has been implemented in C++ using QT Graphical User Interface toolkit (for the Client) and the MICO implementation of CORBA (for the Server). This control software was tested and then installed at the South
Load more

Recommended publications
  • First International Four Seas Conference
    CERN 97-06 31 July 1997 XC98FK266 ORGANISATION EUROPEENNE POUR LA RECHERCHE NUCLEAIRE CERN EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH FIRST INTERNATIONAL FOUR SEAS CONFERENCE Trieste, Italy 26 June-1 July 1995 PROCEEDINGS Editors: A.K. Gougas, Y. Lemoigne, M. Pepe-Altarelli, P. Petroff, C.E. Wulz GENEVA 1997 CERN-Service d'information scientifique-RD/975-200O-juiUet 1997 d) Copyright CKRN, Genève. IW7 Propriété littéraire et si'icnlirii|iic réservée Literary and scientific copyrights reserved in all pour tous les pays du monde. Ce document ne countries of the world. This report, or any part peut être reproduit ou traduit en tout ou en of it, may not be reprinted or translated partie sans l'autorisation écrite du Directeur without written permission of the copyright général du CHRN. titulaire du droit d'auteur. holder, the l)irector-(ieneral of CHRN. Dans les cas appropriés, et s'il s'agit d'utiliser However, permission will he freely granted for le document à des lins non commerciales, cette appropriate noncommercial use. autorisation sera volontiers accordée. II any patentable invention or registrable design l.c CHRN ne revendique pas la propriété des is described in the report, (T!RN makes no inventions hrevclablcs et dessins ou modèles claim to properly rights in it but offers it for the susceptibles de dépôt qui pourraient être free use of research institutions, manu- décrits dans le présent document; ceux-ci peu- facturers and others. CHRN, however, may vent être librement utilisés par les instituts de oppose any attempt by a user to claim any recherche, les industriels et autres intéressés.
    [Show full text]
  • Detection of Geoneutrinos: Can We Make the Gnus Work For
    Detection of Geoneutrinos: Can We Make the Gnus Work for Us? John G. Learned Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2505 Correa Road, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA The detection of electron anti-neutrinos from natural radioactivity in the earth has been a goal of neutrino researchers for about half a century[21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26]. It was accomplished by the KamLAND Collaboration in 2005[27], and opens the way towards studies of the Earth’s radioactive content, with very important implications for geology. New detectors are operating (KamLAND[3] and Borexino[2]), building (SNO+[4]) and being proposed (Hanohano, LENA, Earth and others) that will go beyond the initial observation and allow interesting geophysical and geochemical re- search, in a means not otherwise possible. Herein we describe the approaches being taken (large liquid scintillation instruments), the experimental and technical challenges (optical detectors, direc- tionality), and prospects for growth of this field. There is related spinoff in particle physics (neutrino oscillations and hierarchy determination), astrophysics (solar neutrinos, supernovae, exotica), and in the practical matter of remote monitoring of nuclear reactors. PACS numbers: I. INTRODUCTION: GEONEUTRINO STUDIES tivity required demands employment of expensive liquid STARTED scintillators in order to produce significant light (yielding 30-50 times that from a Cherenkov detector) and further, The preceding paper, “Why Geoneutrinos are almost all neutrino directionality is lost. Further, delicate Interesting”[1], really sets the stage for this contribu- care must be taken for radiopurity, now well understood tion to NU2008. McDonough explains that the flux of but not easy. geoneutrinos coming mainly from the natural radioactive The process employed for detection of the anti- decay chains of Uranium and Thorium from throughout neutrinos is the inverse beta decay, used by researchers the earth, serves as a tag for the abundance and loca- since the initial observations of these neutrinos by Cowan tion of these rare isotopes.
    [Show full text]
  • History of High-Energy Neutrino Astronomy
    History of high-energy neutrino astronomy C. Spiering DESY, Platanenallee 6, D-15738 Zeuthen, Germany This talk sketches the main milestones of the path towards cubic kilometer neutrino telescopes. It starts with the first conceptual ideas in the late 1950s and describes the emergence of concepts for detectors with a realistic discovery potential in the 1970s and 1980s. After the pioneering project DUMAND close to Hawaii was terminated in 1995, the further development was carried by NT200 in Lake Baikal, AMANDA at the South Pole and ANTARES in the Mediterranean Sea. In 2013, more than half a century after the first concepts, IceCube has discovered extraterrestrial high-energy neutrinos and opened a new observational window to the cosmos { marking a milestone along a journey which is far from being finished. 1 From first concepts to the detection of atmospheric neutrinos The initial idea of neutrino astronomy beyond the solar system rested on two arguments: The first was the expectation that a supernova stellar collapse in our galaxy would be accompanied by an enormous burst of neutrinos in the 5-10 MeV range. The second was the expectation that fast rotating pulsars must accelerate charged particles in their Tera-Gauss magnetic fields. Either in the source or on their way to Earth they must hit matter, generate pions and neutrinos as decay products of the pions. The first ideas to detect cosmic high energy neutrinos underground or underwater date back to the late fifties (see 1 for a detailed history of cosmic neutrino detectors). In the 1960 Annual Review of Nuclear Science, K.
    [Show full text]
  • Characterizing the Diffuse Neutrino Flux with the Future Km3net/ARCA
    Characterizing the diffuse neutrino flux with the future KM3NeT/ARCA detector Charakterisierung des diffusen Neutrinoflusses mit dem zukunftigen¨ KM3NeT/ARCA-Neutrinoteleskop Der Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultat¨ der Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat¨ Erlangen-Nurnberg¨ zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades Dr. rer. nat. vorgelegt von Thomas Gerhard Georg Heid aus Roth Als Dissertation genehmigt von der Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultat¨ der Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat¨ Erlangen-Nurnberg¨ Tag der mundlichen¨ Prufung:¨ 13.12.2018 Vorsitzender des Promotionsorgans: Prof. Dr. Georg Kreimer Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Gisela Anton Dr. Paschal Coyle Contents 1 Introduction 6 2 Neutrino physics8 2.1 Neutrino properties...................................8 2.2 Neutrino production...................................8 2.2.1 Neutrinos from astrophysical sources.....................9 2.2.2 Neutrinos produced in the Earth’s atmosphere................. 11 2.3 Neutrino Oscillation................................... 12 2.4 Neutrino interaction................................... 13 2.4.1 Interactions of neutrinos of all kinds of flavor in the neutral current..... 15 2.4.2 Interaction of νe in the charged current..................... 15 2.4.3 Interaction of νµ in the charged current..................... 15 2.4.4 Interactions of ντ in the charged current.................... 16 3 KM3NeT: A worker for neutrino astronomy 18 3.1 KM3NeT........................................ 18 3.2 Future prospects of neutrino astronomy........................ 20 4 Detector Simulation 21 5 Atmospheric
    [Show full text]
  • Improving Event Classification at Km3net with Orcanet
    Improving event classification at KM3NeT with OrcaNet A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for Master in Experimental Physics at Universiteit Utrecht Author Enrique Huesca Santiago July, 2019 2 Abstract Neutrino telescopes such as KM3NeT are being built to detect these tiny, elusive particles. In the case of KM3NeT ORCA the aim is to determine the currently unknown neutrino mass hierarchy, which has far reaching implications for scientific research. Distinguishing between the different types of neutrino flavour interactions seen in the detector is critical for this goal. In order to achieve this, Deep-Learning algorithms such as the OrcaNet framework for KM3NeT are being developed and tested. This work consists of an exploration of the performance of this tool for the concrete case of event identification in KM3NeT, and its implications for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. Here, clear evidence is presented that there is potential for event classification and identification beyond the current binary track-shower scheme, including up to 40% separation for electron neutrino charged current events. Para mamá y papá, los mejores científicos que nunca han sido. Student number: 6310141 Thesis Research Project: 60 ECTS Contact: [email protected] Supervisor: Paul de Jong First Examiner: Raimond Snellings Second Examiner: Alessandro Grelli Word Count: 24966 3 Contents 1 Introduction6 1.1 Motivation.................................6 1.2 Neutrino classification.......................... 10 1.3 Cherenkov Radiation........................... 11 2 Neutrino Physics 12 2.1 Neutrino Discovery............................ 12 2.2 Neutrino Oscillations........................... 14 2.2.1 Neutrino Mixing Formalism................... 14 2.2.2 The Solar Neutrino Problem................... 16 2.2.3 3 flavour neutrino oscillations.................
    [Show full text]
  • Origin and Propagation of Extremely High Energy Cosmic Rays
    To appear in Physics Reports E-Print astro-ph/9811011 Origin and Propagation of Extremely High Energy Cosmic Rays Pijushpani Bhattacharjee1 Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore-560 034, India. G¨unter Sigl2 Astronomy & Astrophysics Center, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA Abstract Cosmic ray particles with energies in excess of 1020 eV have been detected. The sources as well as the physical mechanism(s) responsible for endowing cosmic ray particles with such enormous energies are unknown. This report gives a review of the physics and astrophysics associated with the questions of origin and propagation of these Extremely High Energy (EHE) cosmic rays in the Universe. After a brief review of the observed cosmic rays in general and their possible sources and acceleration mechanisms, a detailed discussion is given of possible “top-down” (non-acceleration) scenarios of origin of EHE cosmic rays through decay of sufficiently massive particles originating from processes in the early Universe. The massive particles can come from collapse and/or annihilation of cosmic topological defects (such as monopoles, cosmic strings, etc.) associated with Grand Unified Theories or they could be some long- lived metastable supermassive relic particles that were created in the early Universe and are decaying in the current epoch. The highest energy end of the cosmic ray spectrum can thus be used as a probe of new fundamental physics beyond Standard Model. We discuss the role of existing and proposed cosmic ray, gamma-ray and neutrino experiments in this context. We also discuss how observations with next generation experiments of images and spectra of EHE cosmic ray sources can be used to obtain new information on Galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields and possibly their origin.
    [Show full text]
  • An Overview of the Experimental High Energy Activities in Greece Chara
    An overview of the Experimental High Energy Activities in Greece Chara Petridou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece [email protected] The Activities An overview of the Experimental High Energy Activities in Greece Greek Experimental HEP Activities Chara Petridou Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Accelarator Non-Accelerator Detector/Acceleratotor Experiments Experiments R&D PhD's 44 PhD's 12 PhD's 3 PhD-students 30 PhD-students 4 PhD-students 2 Accelerator Physics Experiments Accelerator Physics Activities CERN Fermilab Experiments DESY Experiments LHC Exper imen ts nTOF Tevatron-CDF Neutrino Physics HERA-H1/ZEUS PhD's 1 ATLAS CMS ALICE PhD's 1 PhD's 3 PhD-students 2 PhD's 18 PhD's 17 PhD's 3 PhD-students 1 PhD-students 1 PhD-students 10 PhD-students 10 PhD-students 5 Non-Accelerator Physics The Greek ATLAS Project Experiments NKUoA, NTUA, AUTh all three institutes collaborated for the construction of the BIS chambers of the ATLAS Muon sSpectrometer, consisting of 128 MTD Muon chambers Experiments in Greece Experiments at CERN All chambers installed in the ATLAS pit since Dec 2006 NESTOR HELYCON CAST PhD's 4 PhD's 3 PhD's 4 PhD-students 2 PhD-students 2 All chambers commissioned with cosmic rays Ready for data taking C. Kourkoumelis This Conference 3 Demokritos University National Center for University The Greek ATLAS Project CMS in Greece of Athens Scientific Research of Ioannina Preshower • Muon studies: 2008: 17 PhD physicists Participation: Endcap • CMS Preshower (DEMOKRITOS-UoI) ECAL DCS and HV/LV, Bfield control
    [Show full text]
  • A Neutrino Universe
    Quick Review of HE Neutrino Detectors Neutrino Physics is Blossoming, Neutrino Telescopes are Coming into Reality and New Techniques are Pioneered. We are about to begin regular neutrino astronomy! John Learned at ASHRA Meeting in Hawaii, 8 January 2004 ν Outline Projects, old and new: Underground (SK, Soudan, INO, HyperK, UNO….) Underwater and Ice (ANTARES, AMANDA, Baikal, Icecube, NEMO,NESTOR) Radio from the Moon and Earth (GLUE, RICE, ANITA, SALSA) Hearing Neutrinos (AUTEC, SADCO) GZK EAS Projects are ν detectors too (AGASA, HiRes, AUGER, EUSO, OWL, ASHRA) And this in not even mentioning the explosion in neutrino experiments at or associated with accelerators (K2K, Minos, MiniBOONE, ICARUS, JHF …) and at lower energies (KamLAND, SNO, GNO, Gallex,….) For review see J. Learned and K. Mannheim, Ann. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 2000, 50:679-749 2 8 January 2004 John Learned at ASHRA mtg Super-Kamiokande ν BiggestBiggest CurrentCurrent UndergroundUnderground νν DetectorDetector rebuiltrebuilt inin 20022002 toto ½½ densitydensity ofof PMTsPMTs Since Apr. ’96, >1400 days 22,500 ton fiducial Vol. 1,200 m2 muon area 4 MeV – 200 GeV evts ~20,000 Solar ν’s >11,000 FC atm ν’s >2000 upcoming µ’s Strong evidence for νµ↔ντ oscillations ▫ also from K2K, Soudan & MACRO ICRR, U-Tokyo 3 8 January 2004 John Learned at ASHRA mtg SuperK Upcoming Muon Cosmic ν Limits ν EEμ>1.4>1.4 GeV;GeV; <E<Eν>~100>~100 GeVGeV ButBut SadlySadly nono SignalsSignals YetYet Preliminary others from CWRU, KGF, Baksan, Frejus, IMB, Kam, Baikal, MACRO, AMANDA…. Matsuno, UH 4 8 January 2004 John Learned at ASHRA mtg ButBut NeutrinoNeutrino AstronomyAstronomy BeganBegan withwith ν Solar Neutrinos 30 Yrs Ago! • SK Portrait of the Sun in Neutrinos • Data from Homestake, SAGE, GALLEX/GNO, Kamioka, SuperK, SNO • But Flux Only ~1/2-1/3 of Expectations R.
    [Show full text]
  • Periodic Table of the Elements
    Appendix A Periodic Table of the Elements Source From K.A. Olive et al. (Particle Data Group), Chin. Phys. C 38 (2014) 090001 © Springer-Verlag Italia 2015 647 A. De Angelis and M.J.M. Pimenta, Introduction to Particle and Astroparticle Physics, Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics, DOI 10.1007/978-88-470-2688-9 Appendix B Properties of Materials Source From K.A. Olive et al. (Particle Data Group), Chin. Phys. C 38 (2014) 090001 © Springer-Verlag Italia 2015 649 A. De Angelis and M.J.M. Pimenta, Introduction to Particle and Astroparticle Physics, Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics, DOI 10.1007/978-88-470-2688-9 Appendix C Physical and Astrophysical Constants Source From K.A. Olive et al. (Particle Data Group), Chin. Phys. C 38 (2014) 090001 © Springer-Verlag Italia 2015 651 A. De Angelis and M.J.M. Pimenta, Introduction to Particle and Astroparticle Physics, Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics, DOI 10.1007/978-88-470-2688-9 652 Appendix C: Physical and Astrophysical Constants Index Symbols ATLAS experiment, 152 0 K 0 − K Mixing, 310 Aurorae, 624 CDM model, 468, 477, 486 Avalanche photodiodes (APD), 131 αi matrices, 260 Axion, 385, 491 β matrix, 260 Axion-like-particle (ALP), 491, 610 τ-θ puzzle, 95 γ μ matrices, 260 B Baikal NT-200 detector, 181 A Barn, 28 Abelian symmetry groups, 324 Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, 428, 485 Accelerators, 189 Baryons, 190, 214 ACE experiment, 157 baryonic quantum number, 191 Acoustic peaks, 437 Beauty, see Bottom Active galactic nuclei (AGN), 576 BESS experiment, 157 AGASA experiment, 159 β decay,
    [Show full text]
  • The Saga of Atmospheric Neutrinos
    The Saga of Atmospheric Neutrinos John Gregory Learned University of Hawaii A Saga? Yes, a great scientific tale of persistence, dead ends, serendipitous discovery, re- demption and glory. Dictionary definition of a Saga: \a long story of heroic achievement, especially a medieval prose narrative in Old Norse or Old Icelandic." (OED). Indeed the tale of atmospheric neutrino studies has much of this. 1 Neutrino Sources From whence do neutrinos originate? The dominant sources we know are: • Nuclear Reactors (power stations, ships, test reactors), known and observed since the 1950's. • Particle Accelerators make them from collisions of beams of protons into targets and subsequent mesons decaying to muons and those allowed to decay in flight, as at Fermilab, CERN, KEK and Tokai. • Atmospheric Neutrinos from GeV to TeV energies, produced by incoming cosmic rays colliding with air nuclei in the high atmosphere and then the secondary pions and kaons decaying in flight through the atmosphere. • Geo-neutrinos from throughout Earth's mass from primordial Uranium, Thorium and Potassium decay chains, long predicted but hard to detect, and first observed in 2005. • The Sun and indeed all stars produce vast numbers of electron neutrinos, bathing the Earth day and night. The flux of solar neutrinos at earth totally overwhelms the summed flux from all the rest of the Universe. • Supernova (SN) neutrinos are the exception where a huge bursts may be seen from SN not much further away than out neighbor galaxies (SN1987A), with detectors in the class of < 100 kT. Attempts have been made to see the sum of all SN neutrinos, but that flux has been beyond reach as yet (maybe in a few years in Hyper-Kamiokande).
    [Show full text]
  • For Many Years, Physicists Searching for and Studying Delicate Physics Effects Have Been Working in the Shelter of Large Underground Installations
    ^EEF^ANEOTmN^ElESCOPES^^^ Between neutrinos a For many years, physicists searching for and studying delicate physics effects have been working in the shelter of large underground installations. Now the ocean too is the scene of new physics developments. Where do cosmic rays come from? What mechanisms can acceler­ ate particles to ultrahigh energies? What happens around a super- massive black hole? What kind of phenomenon is responsible for the mysterious gamma-ray bursts? Have dark matter particles gath­ ered in the centre of the Earth or of the galaxy? These questions and many others now motivate ambitious experiments in high- energy astrophysics. Astronomy with high-energy neutrinos may soon be able to answer some of these questions and drastically change our point of view on the universe. If one wants to understand the sources of high-energy cosmic rays, one faces a fundamental difficulty: at high energy the tradi­ tional messenger, the photon, is absorbed by the radiation and mat­ ter that it encounters along its path from the sources to the detectors - the universe is actually opaque to high-energy gamma Immersion of a protoype module for the ANTARES underwater rays. Primary cosmic rays are electrically charged so they are neutrino observatory. deflected by galactic and intergalactic magnetic fields, and it is hard to identify their sources. To look at the high-energy sky, one is thus forced to use another messenger that is electrically neutral and basi­ cally insensitive to obstacles. The neutrino is the ideal messenger. Underwater observatories However, because of these essential qualities, neutrinos are also dif­ ficult to detect: one needs a big target to catch them - bigger than the already huge existing underground detectors.
    [Show full text]
  • Neutrino Telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea
    Neutrino Telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea Juan José Hernández-Rey1 IFIC – Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-Universitat de València, apdo. 22085, E-46017 Valencia, Spain [email protected] Abstract. The observation of high energy extraterrestrial neutrinos can be an invaluable source of information about the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. Neutrinos can shed light on the processes that accelerate charge particles in an incredibly wide range of energies both within and outside our Galaxy. They can also help to investigate the nature of the dark matter that pervades the Universe. The unique properties of the neutrino make it peerless as a cosmic messenger, enabling the study of dense and distant astrophysical objects at high energy. The experimental challenge, however, is enormous. Due to the weakly interacting nature of neutrinos and the expected low fluxes very large detectors are required. In this paper we briefly review the neutrino telescopes under the Mediterranean Sea that are operating or in progress. The first line of the ANTARES telescope started to take data in March 2006 and the full 12-line detector was completed in May 2008. By January 2009 more than one thousand neutrino events had been reconstructed. Some of the results of ANTARES will be reviewed. The NESTOR and NEMO projects have made a lot of progress to demonstrate the feasibility of their proposed technological solutions. Finally, the project of a km3-scale telescope, KM3NeT, is rapidly progressing: a conceptual design report was published in 2008 and a technical design report is expected to be delivered by the end of 2009.
    [Show full text]