Background studies for acoustic neutrino detection at the South Pole
Abstract
The detection of acoustic signals from ultra-high energy neutrino interactions is a promising method to measure the tiny flux of cosmogenic neutrinos expected on Earth. The energy threshold for this process depends strongly on the absolute noise level in the target material. The South Pole Acoustic Test Setup (SPATS), deployed in the upper part of four boreholes of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, has monitored the noise in Antarctic ice at the geographic South Pole for more than two years down to 500 m depth. The noise is very stable and Gaussian distributed. Lacking an in-situ calibration up to now, laboratory measurements have been used to estimate the absolute noise level in the 10 to 50 kHz frequency range to be smaller than 20 mPa. Using a threshold trigger, sensors of the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup registered acoustic pulse-like events in the IceCube detector volume and its vicinity. Acoustic signals from refreezing IceCube holes and from anthropogenic sources have been used to localize acoustic events. Monte Carlo simulations of sound propagating from the established sources to the SPATS sensors have allowed to check corresponding model expectations. An upper limit on the neutrino flux at energies GeV is derived from acoustic data taken over eight months.
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Cite
@article{arxiv.1103.1216,
title = {Background studies for acoustic neutrino detection at the South Pole},
author = {The IceCube Collaboration and R. Abbasi and Y. Abdou and T. Abu-Zayyad and J. Adams and J. A. Aguilar and M. Ahlers and K. Andeen and J. Auffenberg and X. Bai and M. Baker and S. W. Barwick and R. Bay and J. L. Bazo Alba and K. Beattie and J. J. Beatty and S. Bechet and J. K. Becker and K. -H. Becker and M. L. Benabderrahmane and S. BenZvi and J. Berdermann and P. Berghaus and D. Berley and E. Bernardini and D. Bertrand and D. Z. Besson and D. Bindig and M. Bissok and E. Blaufuss and J. Blumenthal and D. J. Boersma and C. Bohm and D. Bose and S. Böser and O. Botner and J. Braun and A. M. Brown and S. Buitink and M. Carson and D. Chirkin and B. Christy and J. Clem and F. Clevermann and S. Cohen and C. Colnard and D. F. Cowen and M. V. D'Agostino and M. Danninger and J. Daughhetee and J. C. Davis and C. De Clercq and L. Demirörs and T. Denger and O. Depaepe and F. Descamps and P. Desiati and G. de Vries-Uiterweerd and T. DeYoung and J. C. Diaz-Vélez and M. Dierckxsens and J. Dreyer and J. P. Dumm and R. Ehrlich and J. Eisch and R. W. Ellsworth and O. Engdegård and S. Euler and P. A. Evenson and O. Fadiran and A. R. Fazely and A. Fedynitch and T. Feusels and K. Filimonov and C. Finley and T. Fischer-Wasels and M. M. Foerster and B. D. Fox and A. Franckowiak and R. Franke and T. K. Gaisser and J. Gallagher and M. Geisler and L. Gerhardt and L. Gladstone and T. Glüsenkamp and A. Goldschmidt and J. A. Goodman and D. Grant and T. Griesel and A. Groß and S. Grullon and M. Gurtner and C. Ha and A. Hallgren and F. Halzen and K. Han and K. Hanson and D. Heinen and K. Helbing and P. Herquet and S. Hickford and G. C. Hill and K. D. Hoffman and A. Homeier and K. Hoshina and D. Hubert and W. Huelsnitz and J. -P. Hülß and P. O. Hulth and K. Hultqvist and S. Hussain and A. Ishihara and J. Jacobsen and G. S. Japaridze and H. Johansson and J. M. Joseph and K. -H. Kampert and A. Kappes and T. Karg and A. Karle and J. L. Kelley and P. Kenny and J. Kiryluk and F. Kislat and S. R. Klein and J. -H. Köhne and G. Kohnen and H. Kolanoski and L. Köpke and S. Kopper and D. J. Koskinen and M. Kowalski and T. Kowarik and M. Krasberg and T. Krings and G. Kroll and K. Kuehn and T. Kuwabara and M. Labare and S. Lafebre and K. Laihem and H. Landsman and M. J. Larson and R. Lauer and J. Lünemann and J. Madsen and P. Majumdar and A. Marotta and R. Maruyama and K. Mase and H. S. Matis and K. Meagher and M. Merck and P. Mészáros and T. Meures and E. Middell and N. Milke and J. Miller and T. Montaruli and R. Morse and S. M. Movit and R. Nahnhauer and J. W. Nam and U. Naumann and P. Nießen and D. R. Nygren and S. Odrowski and A. Olivas and M. Olivo and A. O'Murchadha and M. Ono and S. Panknin and L. Paul and C. Pérez de los Heros and J. Petrovic and A. Piegsa and D. Pieloth and R. Porrata and J. Posselt and P. B. Price and M. Prikockis and G. T. Przybylski and K. Rawlins and P. Redl and E. Resconi and W. Rhode and M. Ribordy and A. Rizzo and J. P. Rodrigues and P. Roth and F. Rothmaier and C. Rott and T. Ruhe and D. Rutledge and B. Ruzybayev and D. Ryckbosch and H. -G. Sander and M. Santander and S. Sarkar and K. Schatto and T. Schmidt and A. Schönwald and A. Schukraft and A. Schultes and O. Schulz and M. Schunck and D. Seckel and B. Semburg and S. H. Seo and Y. Sestayo and S. Seunarine and A. Silvestri and A. Slipak and G. M. Spiczak and C. Spiering and M. Stamatikos and T. Stanev and G. Stephens and T. Stezelberger and R. G. Stokstad and A. Stössl and S. Stoyanov and E. A. Strahler and T. Straszheim and M. Stür and G. W. Sullivan and Q. Swillens and H. Taavola and I. Taboada and A. Tamburro and A. Tepe and S. Ter-Antonyan and S. Tilav and P. A. Toale and S. Toscano and D. Tosi and D. Turčan and N. van Eijndhoven and J. Vandenbroucke and A. Van Overloop and J. van Santen and M. Vehring and M. Voge and C. Walck and T. Waldenmaier and M. Wallraff and M. Walter and Ch. Weaver and C. Wendt and S. Westerhoff and N. Whitehorn and K. Wiebe and C. H. Wiebusch and D. R. Williams and R. Wischnewski and H. Wissing and M. Wolf and K. Woschnagg and C. Xu and X. W. Xu and J. P. Yanez and G. Yodh and S. Yoshida and P. Zarzhitsky},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.1216},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
17 pages, 14 figures