Research Objectives:
We will begin building the IceCube Observatory, which will be installed at the South Pole. IceCube is a neutrino telescope that will be buried 1.4 to 2.4 kilometers under the ice and used during the austral summers over a 6-year period. The detector will consist of 4,800 optical modules deployed on 80 vertical strings. AMANDA (see project A–130–S) serves as a prototype for this international collaborative effort.
Using neutrinos as cosmic messengers, IceCube will open unexplored wavelength bands and will answer such fundamental questions as what the physical conditions in gamma ray bursts are and whether the photons originating in the Crab supernova remnant and near the super massive black holes of active galaxies are of hadronic (derived from subatomic particles composed of quarks) or electromagnetic origin. The telescope will also serve to examine the particle nature of dark matter, aid in the quest to observe super symmetric particles, and search for compactified dimensions.
This season we will plan the schedule and begin assembling and testing the components and drilling systems we will use to construct the observatory. Since many parts of the Universe cannot be explored using other types of radiation (protons do not carry directional information because they are deflected by magnetic fields, neutrons decay before they reach the Earth, and high-energy photons may be absorbed), IceCube will fill a gap in our knowledge and occupy a unique place in astronomical research.
