| 1. |
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Direct photon production in d+Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV
- 2013
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 87:5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Direct photons have been measured in root s(NN) = 200 GeV d + Au collisions at midrapidity. A wide p(T) range is covered by measurements of nearly real virtual photons (1 < p(T) < 6 GeV/c) and real photons (5 < p(T) < 16 GeV/c). The invariant yield of the direct photons in d + Au collisions over the scaled p + p cross section is consistent with unity. Theoretical calculations assuming standard cold-nuclear-matter effects describe the data well for the entire p(T) range. This indicates that the large enhancement of direct photons observed in Au + Au collisions for 1.0 < p(T) < 2.5 GeV/c is attributable to a source other than the initial-state nuclear effects.
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| 4. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Production of omega mesons in p plus p, d plus Au, Cu plus Cu, and Au plus Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV
- 2011
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 84:4
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured omega meson production via leptonic and hadronic decay channels in p + p, d + Au, Cu+ Cu, and Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. The invariant transverse momentum spectra measured in different decay modes give consistent results. Measurements in the hadronic decay channel in Cu Cu and Au + Au collisions show that. production has a suppression pattern at high transverse momentum, similar to that of pi(0) and eta in central collisions, but no suppression is observed in peripheral collisions. The nuclear modification factors, R-AA, are consistent in Cu + Cu and Au + Au collisions at similar numbers of participant nucleons.
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| 5. |
- Adcox, K, et al.
(author)
-
PHENIX detector overview
- 2003
-
In: Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research. Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors, and Associated Equipment. - 0167-5087. ; 499:2-3, s. 469-479
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The PHENIX detector is designed to perform a broad study of A-A, p-A, and p-p collisions to investigate nuclear matter under extreme conditions. A wide variety of probes, sensitive to all timescales, are used to study systematic variations with species and energy as well as to measure the spin structure of the nucleon. Designing for the needs of the heavy-ion and polarized-proton programs has produced a detector with unparalleled capabilities. PHENIX measures electron and muon pairs, photons, and hadrons with excellent energy and momentum resolution. The detector consists of a large number of subsystems that are discussed in other papers in this volume. The overall design parameters of the detector are presented. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 6. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Nuclear modification factors of phi mesons in d plus Au, Cu plus Cu, and Au plus Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV
- 2011
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 83:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has performed systematic measurements of phi meson production in the K+K- decay channel at midrapidity in p + p, d + Au, Cu + Cu, and Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. Results are presented on the phi invariant yield and the nuclear modification factor R-AA for Au + Au and Cu + Cu, and R-dA for d + Au collisions, studied as a function of transverse momentum (1 < p(T) < 7 GeV/c) and centrality. In central and midcentral Au + Au collisions, the R-AA of phi exhibits a suppression relative to expectations from binary scaled p + p results. The amount of suppression is smaller than that of the pi(0) and the. in the intermediate p(T) range (2-5 GeV/c), whereas, at higher p(T), the phi, pi(0), and. show similar suppression. The baryon (proton and antiproton) excess observed in central Au + Au collisions at intermediate p(T) is not observed for the phi meson despite the similar masses of the proton and the phi. This suggests that the excess is linked to the number of valence quarks in the hadron rather than its mass. The difference gradually disappears with decreasing centrality, and, for peripheral collisions, the R-AA values for both particle species are consistent with binary scaling. Cu + Cu collisions show the same yield and suppression as Au + Au collisions for the same number of N-part. The R-dA of phi shows no evidence for cold nuclear effects within uncertainties.
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| 7. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Photon-hadron jet correlations in p plus p and Au plus Au collisions at s(NN)=200 GeV
- 2009
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 80:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the observation at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider of suppression of back-to-back correlations in the direct photon+jet channel in Au+Au relative to p+p collisions. Two-particle correlations of direct photon triggers with associated hadrons are obtained by statistical subtraction of the decay photon-hadron (gamma-h) background. The initial momentum of the away-side parton is tightly constrained, because the parton-photon pair exactly balance in momentum at leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics, making such correlations a powerful probe of the in-medium parton energy loss. The away-side nuclear suppression factor, I-AA, in central Au+Au collisions, is 0.32 +/- 0.12(stat)+/- 0.09(syst) for hadrons of 3 < p(T)(h)< 5 in coincidence with photons of 5 < p(T)(gamma)< 15 GeV/c. The suppression is comparable to that observed for high-p(T) single hadrons and dihadrons. The direct photon associated yields in p+p collisions scale approximately with the momentum balance, z(T)equivalent to p(T)(h)/p(T)(gamma), as expected for a measurement of the away-side parton fragmentation function. We compare to Au+Au collisions for which the momentum balance dependence of the nuclear modification should be sensitive to the path-length dependence of parton energy loss.
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| 8. |
- Adrian-Martinez, S., et al.
(author)
-
The First Combined Search For Neutrino Point-Sources In The Southern Hemisphere With The Antares And Icecube Neutrino Telescopes
- 2016
-
In: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 823:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present the results of searches for point-like sources of neutrinos based on the first combined analysis of data from both the ANTARES and IceCube neutrino telescopes. The combination of both detectors, which differ in size and location, forms a window in the southern sky where the sensitivity to point sources improves by up to a factor of 2 compared with individual analyses. Using data recorded by ANTARES from 2007 to 2012, and by IceCube from 2008 to 2011, we search for sources of neutrino emission both across the southern sky and from a preselected list of candidate objects. No significant excess over background has been found in these searches, and flux upper limits for the candidate sources are presented for E-2.5 and E-2 power-law spectra with different energy cut-offs.
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| 9. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
System size and energy dependence of jet-induced hadron pair correlation shapes in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at root S-NN 200 and 62.4 GeV
- 2007
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - 1079-7114. ; 98:23
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present azimuthal angle correlations of intermediate transverse momentum (1-4 GeV/c) hadrons from dijets in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at root s(NN)=62.4 and 200 GeV. The away-side dijet induced azimuthal correlation is broadened, non-Gaussian, and peaked away from Delta phi=pi in central and semicentral collisions in all the systems. The broadening and peak location are found to depend upon the number of participants in the collision, but not on the collision energy or beam nuclei. These results are consistent with sound or shock wave models, but pose challenges to Cherenkov gluon radiation models.
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| 10. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Charged hadron multiplicity fluctuations in Au plus Au and Cu plus Cu collisions from s(NN)=22.5 to 200 GeV
- 2008
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 78:4
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A comprehensive survey of event-by-event fluctuations of charged hadron multiplicity in relativistic heavy ions is presented. The survey covers Au+Au collisions at s(NN)=62.4 and 200 GeV, and Cu+Cu collisions at s(NN)=22.5,62.4, and 200 GeV. Fluctuations are measured as a function of collision centrality, transverse momentum range, and charge sign. After correcting for nondynamical fluctuations due to fluctuations in the collision geometry within a centrality bin, the remaining dynamical fluctuations expressed as the variance normalized by the mean tend to decrease with increasing centrality. The dynamical fluctuations are consistent with or below the expectation from a superposition of participant nucleon-nucleon collisions based upon p+p data, indicating that this dataset does not exhibit evidence of critical behavior in terms of the compressibility of the system. A comparison of the data with a model where hadrons are independently emitted from a number of hadron clusters suggests that the mean number of hadrons per cluster is small in heavy ion collisions.
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| 11. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Cold nuclear matter effects on J/psi production as constrained by deuteron-gold measurements at root S-NN=200 GeV
- 2008
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 77:2, s. 15-024912
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present a new analysis of J/psi production yields in deuteron-gold collisions at root s(NN) =200 GeV using data taken from the PHENIX experiment in 2003 and previously published in S. S. Adler [Phys. Rev. Lett 96, 012304 (2006)]. The high statistics proton-proton J/psi data taken in 2005 are used to improve the baseline measurement and thus construct updated cold nuclear matter modification factors (R-dAu). A suppression of J/psi in cold nuclear matter is observed as one goes forward in rapidity (in the deuteron-going direction), corresponding to a region more sensitive to initial-state low-x gluons in the gold nucleus. The measured nuclear modification factors are compared to theoretical calculations of nuclear shadowing to which a J/psi (or precursor) breakup cross section is added. Breakup cross sections of sigma(breakup)=2.8(-1.4)(+1.7) (2.2(-1.5)(+1.6)) mb are obtained by fitting these calculations to the data using two different models of nuclear shadowing. These breakup cross-section values are consistent within large uncertainties with the 4.2 +/- 0.5 mb determined at lower collision energies. Projecting this range of cold nuclear matter effects to copper-copper and gold-gold collisions reveals that the current constraints are not sufficient to firmly quantify the additional hot nuclear matter effect.
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| 12. |
- Adler, S. S., et al.
(author)
-
High transverse momentum eta meson production in p+p, d+Au, and Au+Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV
- 2007
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 75:2
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of eta mesons in the range p(T)approximate to 2-12 GeV/c have been measured at midrapidity (vertical bar eta vertical bar < 0.35) by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC in p+p,d+Au, and Au+Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV. The eta mesons are reconstructed through their eta ->gamma gamma channel for the three colliding systems as well as through the eta ->pi(0)pi(+)pi(-) decay mode in p+p and d+Au collisions. The nuclear modification factor in d+Au collisions, R-dAu(p(T))approximate to 1.0-1.1, suggests at most only modest p(T) broadening ("Cronin enhancement"). In central Au+Au reactions, the eta yields are significantly suppressed, with R-AuAu(p(T))approximate to 0.2. The ratio of eta to pi(0) yields is approximately constant as a function of p(T) for the three colliding systems in agreement with the high-p(T) world average of R-eta/pi(0)approximate to 0.5 in hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions for a wide range of center-of-mass energies (root sNN approximate to 3-1800 GeV) as well as, for high scaled momentum x(p), in e(+)e(-) annihilations at root s=91.2 GeV. These results are consistent with a scenario where high-p(T) eta production in nuclear collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is largely unaffected by initial-state effects but where light-quark mesons (pi(0),eta) are equally suppressed due to final-state interactions of the parent partons in the dense medium produced in Au+Au reactions.
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| 13. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
First Observation of PeV-Energy Neutrinos with IceCube
- 2013
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 111:2, s. 021103-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report on the observation of two neutrino-induced events which have an estimated deposited energy in the IceCube detector of 1.04 +/- 0.16 and 1.14 +/- 0.17 PeV, respectively, the highest neutrino energies observed so far. These events are consistent with fully contained particle showers induced by neutral-current nu(e,mu,tau) ((nu) over bar (e,mu,tau)) or charged-current nu(e) ((nu) over bar (e)) interactions within the IceCube detector. The events were discovered in a search for ultrahigh energy neutrinos using data corresponding to 615.9 days effective live time. The expected number of atmospheric background is 0.082 +/- 0.004(stat)(-0.057)(+0.041)(syst). The probability of observing two or more candidate events under the atmospheric background-only hypothesis is 2.9 x 10(-3) (2.8 sigma) taking into account the uncertainty on the expected number of background events. These two events could be a first indication of an astrophysical neutrino flux; the moderate significance, however, does not permit a definitive conclusion at this time.
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| 14. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Observation of Cosmic-Ray Anisotropy with the Icetop Air Shower Array
- 2013
-
In: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 765:1, s. 55-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report on the observation of anisotropy in the arrival direction distribution of cosmic rays at PeV energies. The analysis is based on data taken between 2009 and 2012 with the IceTop air shower array at the south pole. IceTop, an integral part of the IceCube detector, is sensitive to cosmic rays between 100 TeV and 1 EeV. With the current size of the IceTop data set, searches for anisotropy at the 10(-3) level can, for the first time, be extended to PeV energies. We divide the data set into two parts with median energies of 400 TeV and 2 PeV, respectively. In the low energy band, we observe a strong deficit with an angular size of about 30 degrees and an amplitude of (-1.58 +/- 0.46(stat) +/- 0.52(sys)) x 10(-3) at a location consistent with previous observations of cosmic rays with the IceCube neutrino detector. The study of the high energy band shows that the anisotropy persists to PeV energies and increases in amplitude to (-3.11 +/- 0.38(stat) +/- 0.96(sys)) x 10(-3).
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| 15. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
South Pole glacial climate reconstruction from multi-borehole laser particulate stratigraphy
- 2013
-
In: Journal of Glaciology. - 0022-1430 .- 1727-5652. ; 59:218, s. 1117-1128
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The IceCube Neutrino Observatory and its prototype, AMANDA, were built in South Pole ice, using powerful hot-water drills to cleanly bore >100 holes to depths up to 2500 m. The construction of these particle physics detectors provided a unique opportunity to examine the deep ice sheet using a variety of novel techniques. We made high-resolution particulate profiles with a laser dust logger in eight of the boreholes during detector commissioning between 2004 and 2010. The South Pole laser logs are among the most clearly resolved measurements of Antarctic dust strata during the last glacial period and can be used to reconstruct paleoclimate records in exceptional detail. Here we use manual and algorithmic matching to synthesize our South Pole measurements with ice-core and logging data from Dome C, East Antarctica. We derive impurity concentration, precision chronology, annual-layer thickness, local spatial variability, and identify several widespread volcanic ash depositions useful for dating. We also examine the interval around similar to 74 ka recently isolated with radiometric dating to bracket the Toba (Sumatra) supereruption.
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| 16. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory : instrumentation and online systems
- 2017
-
In: Journal of Instrumentation. - : IOP PUBLISHING LTD. - 1748-0221. ; 12
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic-kilometer-scale high-energy neutrino detector built into the ice at the South Pole. Construction of IceCube, the largest neutrino detector built to date, was completed in 2011 and enabled the discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. We describe here the design, production, and calibration of the IceCube digital optical module (DOM), the cable systems, computing hardware, and our methodology for drilling and deployment. We also describe the online triggering and data filtering systems that select candidate neutrino and cosmic ray events for analysis. Due to a rigorous pre-deployment protocol, 98.4% of the DOMs in the deep ice are operating and collecting data. IceCube routinely achieves a detector uptime of 99% by emphasizing software stability and monitoring. Detector operations have been stable since construction was completed, and the detector is expected to operate at least until the end of the next decade.
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| 17. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Detailed measurement of the e(+)e(-) pair continuum in p plus p and Au plus Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV and implications for direct photon production
- 2010
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 81:3
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- PHENIX has measured the e(+)e(-) pair continuum in root s(NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au and p+p collisions over a wide range of mass and transverse momenta. The e(+)e(-) yield is compared to the expectations from hadronic sources, based on PHENIX measurements. In the intermediate-mass region, between the masses of the phi and the J/psi meson, the yield is consistent with expectations from correlated c (c) over bar production, although other mechanisms are not ruled out. In the low-mass region, below the phi, the p+p inclusive mass spectrum is well described by known contributions from light meson decays. In contrast, the Au+Au minimum bias inclusive mass spectrum in this region shows an enhancement by a factor of 4.7 +/- 0.4(stat) +/- 1.5(syst) +/- 0.9(model). At low mass (m(ee) < 0.3 GeV/c(2)) and high p(T) (1 < p(T) < 5 GeV/c) an enhanced e(+)e(-) pair yield is observed that is consistent with production of virtual direct photons. This excess is used to infer the yield of real direct photons. In central Au+Au collisions, the excess of the direct photon yield over the p+p is exponential in p(T), with inverse slope T = 221 +/- 19(stat) +/- 19(syst) MeV. Hydrodynamical models with initial temperatures ranging from T-init similar or equal to 300-600 MeV at times of 0.6-0.15 fm/c after the collision are in qualitative agreement with the direct photon data in Au+Au. For low p(T) < 1 GeV/c the low-mass region shows a further significant enhancement that increases with centrality and has an inverse slope of T similar or equal to 100 MeV. Theoretical models underpredict the low-mass, low-p(T) enhancement.
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| 18. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Energy loss and flow of heavy quarks in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV
- 2007
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - 1079-7114. ; 98:17
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The PHENIX experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has measured electrons with 0.3 < p(T) < 9 GeV/c at midrapidity (y < 0.35) from heavy-flavor (charm and bottom) decays in Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. The nuclear modification factor R-AA relative to p + p collisions shows a strong suppression in central Au + Au collisions, indicating substantial energy loss of heavy quarks in the medium produced at RHIC energies. A large azimuthal anisotropy v(2) with respect to the reaction plane is observed for 0.5 < p(T) < 5 GeV/c indicating substantial heavy-flavor elliptic flow. Both R-AA and v(2) show a p(T) dependence different from those of neutral pions. A comparison to transport models which simultaneously describe R-AA(p(T)) and v(2)(p(T)) suggests that the viscosity to entropy density ratio is close to the conjectured quantum lower bound, i.e., near a perfect fluid.
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| 19. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Heavy-quark production in p plus p and energy loss and flow of heavy quarks in Au plus Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV
- 2011
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 84:4
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Transverse momentum spectra of electrons (p(T)(e)) from semileptonic weak decays of heavy-flavor mesons in the range of 0.3 < p(T)(e) < 9.0 GeV/c have been measured at midrapidity (|y| < 0.35) by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in p + p and Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. In addition, the azimuthal anisotropy parameter v(2) has been measured for 0.3 < p(T)(e) < 5.0 GeV/c in Au + Au collisions. The substantial modification in the p(T)(e) spectra in Au + Au compared with p + p collisions as well as the nonzero v(2) indicate substantial interactions and flow of heavy quarks in traversing the produced medium. Comparisons of these observables with detailed theoretical calculations can be used to identify the nature of these interactions and to quantify their extent.
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| 20. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Scaling properties of azimuthal anisotropy in Au plus Au and Cu plus Cu collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV
- 2007
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - 1079-7114. ; 98:16
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Differential measurements of elliptic flow (v(2)) for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV are used to test and validate predictions from perfect fluid hydrodynamics for scaling of v(2) with eccentricity, system size, and transverse kinetic energy (KET). For KET equivalent to m(T)-m up to similar to 1 GeV the scaling is compatible with hydrodynamic expansion of a thermalized fluid. For large values of KET mesons and baryons scale separately. Quark number scaling reveals a universal scaling of v(2) for both mesons and baryons over the full KET range for Au+Au. For Au+Au and Cu+Cu the scaling is more pronounced in terms of KET, rather than transverse momentum.
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| 21. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Systematic study of azimuthal anisotropy in Cu plus Cu and Au plus Au collisions at root s(NN)=62.4 and 200 GeV
- 2015
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 92:3
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have studied the dependence of azimuthal anisotropy nu(2) for inclusive and identified charged hadrons in Au + Au and Cu + Cu collisions on collision energy, species, and centrality. The values of nu(2) as a function of transverse momentum pT and centrality in Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 and 62.4 GeV are the same within uncertainties. However, in Cu + Cu collisions we observe a decrease in nu(2) values as the collision energy is reduced from 200 to 62.4 GeV. The decrease is larger in the more peripheral collisions. By examining both Au + Au and Cu + Cu collisions we find that nu(2) depends both on eccentricity and the number of participants, N-part. We observe that nu(2) divided by eccentricity (epsilon) monotonically increases with N-part and scales as N-part(1/3). The Cu + Cu data at 62.4 GeV falls below the other scaled nu(2) data. For identified hadrons, nu(2) divided by the number of constituent quarks n(q) is independent of hadron species as a function of transverse kinetic energy K E-T = m(T) - m between 0.1 < K E-T / n(q) < 1 GeV. Combining all of the above scaling and normalizations, we observe a near-universal scaling, with the exception of the Cu + Cu data at 62.4 GeV, of nu(2)/(nq center dot e center dot N-part(1/3)) vs K E-T / n(q) for all measured particles.
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| 22. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
A Combined Maximum-Likelihood Analysis Of The High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrino Flux Measured With Icecube
- 2015
-
In: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 809:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Evidence for an extraterrestrial flux of high-energy neutrinos has now been found in multiple searches with the IceCube detector. The first solid evidence was provided by a search for neutrino events with deposited energies greater than or similar to 30 TeV and interaction vertices inside the instrumented volume. Recent analyses suggest that the extraterrestrial flux extends to lower energies and is also visible with throughgoing, nu(mu)-induced tracks from the Northern Hemisphere. Here, we combine the results from six different IceCube searches for astrophysical neutrinos in a maximum-likelihood analysis. The combined event sample features high-statistics samples of shower-like and track-like events. The data are fit in up to three observables: energy, zenith angle, and event topology. Assuming the astrophysical neutrino flux to be isotropic and to consist of equal flavors at Earth, the all-flavor spectrum with neutrino energies between 25 TeV and 2.8 PeV is well described by an unbroken power law with best-fit spectral index -2.50 +/- 0.09 and a flux at 100 TeV of (6.7(-1.2)(+1.1)) x 10(-18) GeV-1 s(-1) sr(-1) cm(-2). Under the same assumptions, an unbroken power law with index -2 is disfavored with a significance of 3.8 sigma (p = 0.0066%) with respect to the best fit. This significance is reduced to 2.1 sigma (p = 1.7%) if instead we compare the best fit to a spectrum with index -2 that has an exponential cut-off at high energies. Allowing the electron-neutrino flux to deviate from the other two flavors, we find a nu(e) fraction of 0.18 +/- 0.11 at Earth. The sole production of electron neutrinos, which would be characteristic of neutron-decay-dominated sources, is rejected with a significance of 3.6 sigma ( p = 0.014%).
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| 23. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Characterization of the atmospheric muon flux in IceCube
- 2016
-
In: Astroparticle physics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0927-6505 .- 1873-2852. ; 78, s. 1-27
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Muons produced in atmospheric cosmic ray showers account for the by far dominant part of the event yield in large-volume underground particle detectors. The IceCube detector, with an instrumented volume of about a cubic kilometer, has the potential to conduct unique investigations on atmospheric muons by exploiting the large collection area and the possibility to track particles over a long distance. Through detailed reconstruction of energy deposition along the tracks, the characteristics of muon bundles can be quantified, and individual particles of exceptionally high energy identified. The data can then be used to constrain the cosmic ray primary flux and the contribution to atmospheric lepton fluxes from prompt decays of short-lived hadrons. In this paper, techniques for the extraction of physical measurements from atmospheric muon events are described and first results are presented. The multiplicity spectrum of TeV muons in cosmic ray air showers for primaries in the energy range from the knee to the ankle is derived and found to be consistent with recent results from surface detectors. The single muon energy spectrum is determined up to PeV energies and shows a clear indication for the emergence of a distinct spectral component from prompt decays of short-lived hadrons. The magnitude of the prompt flux, which should include a substantial contribution from light vector meson di-muon decays, is consistent with current theoretical predictions. The variety of measurements and high event statistics can also be exploited for the evaluation of systematic effects. In the course of this study, internal inconsistencies in the zenith angle distribution of events were found which indicate the presence of an unexplained effect outside the currently applied range of detector systematics. The underlying cause could be related to the hadronic interaction models used to describe muon production in air showers.
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| 24. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector
- 2013
-
In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 342:6161, s. 947-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report on results of an all-sky search for high-energy neutrino events interacting within the IceCube neutrino detector conducted between May 2010 and May 2012. The search follows up on the previous detection of two PeV neutrino events, with improved sensitivity and extended energy coverage down to about 30 TeV. Twenty-six additional events were observed, substantially more than expected from atmospheric backgrounds. Combined, both searches reject a purely atmospheric origin for the 28 events at the 4 sigma level. These 28 events, which include the highest energy neutrinos ever observed, have flavors, directions, and energies inconsistent with those expected from the atmospheric muon and neutrino backgrounds. These properties are, however, consistent with generic predictions for an additional component of extraterrestrial origin.
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| 25. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Measurement of Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations with IceCube
- 2013
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 111:8, s. 081801-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present the first statistically significant detection of neutrino oscillations in the high-energy regime (> 20 GeV) from an analysis of IceCube Neutrino Observatory data collected in 2010 and 2011. This measurement is made possible by the low-energy threshold of the DeepCore detector (similar to 20 GeV) and benefits from the use of the IceCube detector as a veto against cosmic-ray-induced muon background. The oscillation signal was detected within a low-energy muon neutrino sample (20-100 GeV) extracted from data collected by DeepCore. A high-energy muon neutrino sample (100 GeV-10 TeV) was extracted from IceCube data to constrain systematic uncertainties. The disappearance of low-energy upward-going muon neutrinos was observed, and the nonoscillation hypothesis is rejected with more than 5 sigma significance. In a two-neutrino flavor formalism, our data are best described by the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar = (2.3(-0.5)(+0.6)) x 10(-3) eV(2) and sin(2) (2 theta(23)) > 0.93, and maximum mixing is favored.
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| 26. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Measurement of the Atmospheric nu(e) Flux in IceCube
- 2013
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 110:15, s. 151105-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the first measurement of the atmospheric electron neutrino flux in the energy range between approximately 80 GeV and 6 TeV, using data recorded during the first year of operation of IceCube's DeepCore low-energy extension. Techniques to identify neutrinos interacting within the DeepCore volume and veto muons originating outside the detector are demonstrated. A sample of 1029 events is observed in 281 days of data, of which 496 +/- 66(stat) +/- 88(syst) are estimated to be cascade events, including both electron neutrino and neutral current events. The rest of the sample includes residual backgrounds due to atmospheric muons and charged current interactions of atmospheric muon neutrinos. The flux of the atmospheric electron neutrinos is consistent with models of atmospheric neutrinos in this energy range. This constitutes the first observation of electron neutrinos and neutral current interactions in a very large volume neutrino telescope optimized for the TeV energy range.
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| 27. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Observation of the cosmic-ray shadow of the Moon with IceCube
- 2014
-
In: Physical Review D. - 1550-7998 .- 1550-2368. ; 89:10, s. 102004-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report on the observation of a significant deficit of cosmic rays from the direction of the Moon with the IceCube detector. The study of this "Moon shadow" is used to characterize the angular resolution and absolute pointing capabilities of the detector. The detection is based on data taken in two periods before the completion of the detector: between April 2008 and May 2009, when IceCube operated in a partial configuration with 40 detector strings deployed in the South Pole ice, and between May 2009 and May 2010 when the detector operated with 59 strings. Using two independent analysis methods, the Moon shadow has been observed to high significance (> 6 sigma) in both detector configurations. The observed location of the shadow center is within 0.2 degrees of its expected position when geomagnetic deflection effects are taken into account. This measurement validates the directional reconstruction capabilities of IceCube.
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| 28. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Search for Dark Matter Annihilations in the Sun with the 79-String IceCube Detector
- 2013
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 110:13, s. 131302-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have performed a search for muon neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the center of the Sun with the 79-string configuration of the IceCube neutrino telescope. For the first time, the DeepCore subarray is included in the analysis, lowering the energy threshold and extending the search to the austral summer. The 317 days of data collected between June 2010 and May 2011 are consistent with the expected background from atmospheric muons and neutrinos. Upper limits are set on the dark matter annihilation rate, with conversions to limits on spin-dependent and spin-independent scattering cross sections of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) on protons, for WIMP masses in the range 20-5000 GeV=c(2). These are the most stringent spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross section limits to date above 35 GeV=c(2) for most WIMP models.
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| 29. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Search for Galactic PeV gamma rays with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
- 2013
-
In: Physical Review D. - 1550-7998 .- 1550-2368. ; 87:6, s. 062002-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Gamma-ray induced air showers are notable for their lack of muons, compared to hadronic showers. Hence, air shower arrays with large underground muon detectors can select a sample greatly enriched in photon showers by rejecting showers containing muons. IceCube is sensitive to muons with energies above similar to 500 GeV at the surface, which provides an efficient veto system for hadronic air showers with energies above 1 PeV. One year of data from the 40-string IceCube configuration was used to perform a search for point sources and a Galactic diffuse signal. No sources were found, resulting in a 90% C.L. upper limit on the ratio of gamma rays to cosmic rays of 1.2 x 10(-3) for the flux coming from the Galactic plane region (-80 degrees less than or similar to l less than or similar to -30 degrees; -10 degrees less than or similar to b less than or similar to 5 degrees) in the energy range 1.2-6.0 PeV. In the same energy range, point source fluxes with E-2 spectra have been excluded at a level of (E/TeV)(2)d Phi/dE similar to 10(-12)-10(-11) cm(-2) s(-1) TeV-1 depending on source declination. The complete IceCube detector will have a better sensitivity (due to the larger detector size), improved reconstruction, and vetoing techniques. Preliminary data from the nearly final IceCube detector configuration have been used to estimate the 5-yr sensitivity of the full detector. It is found to be more than an order of magnitude better, allowing the search for PeV extensions of known TeV gamma-ray emitters.
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| 30. |
- Abbasi, R, et al.
(author)
-
Determination of the atmospheric neutrino flux and searches for new physics with AMANDA-II
- 2009
-
In: Physical Review D. - 1550-7998 .- 1550-2368. ; 79, s. 102005-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The AMANDA-II detector, operating since 2000 in the deep ice at the geographic South Pole, has accumulated a large sample of atmospheric muon neutrinos in the 100 GeV to 10 TeV energy range. The zenith angle and energy distribution of these events can be used to search for various phenomenological signatures of quantum gravity in the neutrino sector, such as violation of Lorentz invariance or quantum decoherence. Analyzing a set of 5511 candidate neutrino events collected during 1387 days of livetime from 2000 to 2006, we find no evidence for such effects and set upper limits on violation of Lorentz invariance and quantum decoherence parameters using a maximum likelihood method. Given the absence of evidence for new flavor-changing physics, we use the same methodology to determine the conventional atmospheric muon neutrino flux above 100 GeV.
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| 31. |
- Abbasi, R, et al.
(author)
-
FIRST NEUTRINO POINT-SOURCE RESULTS FROM THE 22 STRING ICECUBE DETECTOR
- 2009
-
In: Astrophysical Journal Letters. - 2041-8205. ; 701, s. L47-L51
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present new results of searches for neutrino point sources in the northern sky, using data recorded in 2007-2008 with 22 strings of the IceCube detector (approximately one-fourth of the planned total) and 275.7 days of live time. The final sample of 5114 neutrino candidate events agrees well with the expected background of atmospheric muon neutrinos and a small component of atmospheric muons. No evidence of a point source is found, with the most significant excess of events in the sky at 2.2 sigma after accounting for all trials. The average upper limit over the northern sky for point sources of muon-neutrinos with E-2 spectrum is E-2 Phi(v mu) < 1.4 x 10(-11) TeV cm(-2) s(-1), in the energy range from 3 TeV to 3 PeV, improving the previous best average upper limit by the AMANDA-II detector by a factor of 2.
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| 32. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Correlated production of p and (p)over-bar in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV
- 2007
-
In: Physics Letters. Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-2693. ; 649:5-6, s. 359-369
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Correlations between p and (p) over bar at transverse momenta typical of enhanced baryon production in Au + Au collisions are reported. The PHENIX experiment has measured same and opposite sign baryon pairs in Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. Correlated production of p and p with the trigger particle from the range 2.5 < p(T) < 4.0 GeV/c and the associated particle with 1.8 < p(T) < 2.5 GeV/c is observed to be nearly independent of the centrality of the collisions. Same sign pairs show no correlation at any centrality. The conditional yield of mesons triggered by baryons (and anti-baryons) and mesons in the same p(T) range rises with increasing centrality, except for the most central collisions, where baryons show a significantly smaller number of associated mesons. These data are consistent with a picture in which hard scattered partons produce correlated p and (p) over bar in the p(T) region of the baryon excess. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 33. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Dihadron azimuthal correlations in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV
- 2008
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 78:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Azimuthal angle (Delta phi) correlations are presented for a broad range of transverse momentum (0.4 < p(T) < 10 GeV/c) and centrality (0-92%) selections for charged hadrons from dijets in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. With increasing p(T), the away-side Delta phi distribution evolves from a broad and relatively flat shape to a concave shape, then to a convex shape. Comparisons with p + p data suggest that the away-side distribution can be divided into a partially suppressed "head" region centered at Delta phi similar to pi, and an enhanced "shoulder" region centered at Delta phi similar to pi +/- 1.1. The p(T) spectrum for the associated hadrons in the head region softens toward central collisions. The spectral slope for the shoulder region is independent of centrality and trigger p(T). The properties of the near-side distributions are also modified relative to those in p + p collisions, reflected by the broadening of the jet shape in Delta phi and Delta eta, and an enhancement of the per-trigger yield. However, these modifications seem to be limited to p(T)less than or similar to 4 GeV/c, above which both the hadron pair shape and per-trigger yield become similar to p + p collisions. These observations suggest that both the away- and near-side distributions contain a jet fragmentation component which dominates for p(T) greater than or similar to 5 GeV/c and a medium-induced component which is important for p(T) less than or similar to 4 GeV/c. We also quantify the role of jets at intermediate and low p(T) through the yield of jet-induced pairs in comparison with binary scaled p + p pair yield. The yield of jet-induced pairs is suppressed at high pair proxy energy (sum of the p(T) magnitudes of the two hadrons) and is enhanced at low pair proxy energy. The former is consistent with jet quenching; the latter is consistent with the enhancement of soft hadron pairs due to transport of lost energy to lower p(T).
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| 34. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Enhanced Production of Direct Photons in Au plus Au Collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV and Implications for the Initial Temperature
- 2010
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - 1079-7114. ; 104:13
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The production of e(+)e(-) pairs for m(e+e-) < 0.3 GeV/c(2) and 1< p(T) < 5 GeV/c is measured in p + p and Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. An enhanced yield above hadronic sources is observed. Treating the excess as photon internal conversions, the invariant yield of direct photons is deduced. In central Au + Au collisions, the excess of the direct photon yield over p + p is exponential in transverse momentum, with an inverse slope T = 221 +/- 19(stat) +/- 19(syst) MeV. Hydrodynamical models with initial temperatures ranging from T-init similar to 300-600 MeV at times of similar to 0.6-0.15 fm/c after the collision are in qualitative agreement with the data. Lattice QCD predicts a phase transition to quark gluon plasma at similar to 170 MeV.
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| 35. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
J/psi production versus centrality, transverse momentum, and rapidity in Au+Au collisions at root S(NN) = 200 GeV
- 2007
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - 1079-7114. ; 98:23
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The PHENIX experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has measured J/psi production for rapidities -2.2 < y < 2.2 in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV. The J/psi invariant yield and nuclear modification factor R-AA as a function of centrality, transverse momentum, and rapidity are reported. A suppression of J/psi relative to binary collision scaling of proton-proton reaction yields is observed. Models which describe the lower energy J/psi data at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron invoking only J/psi destruction based on the local medium density predict a significantly larger suppression at RHIC and more suppression at midrapidity than at forward rapidity. Both trends are contradicted by our data.
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| 36. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Quantitative constraints on the transport properties of hot partonic matter from semi-inclusive single high transverse momentum pion suppression in Au plus Au collisions at root S-NN=200 GeV
- 2008
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 77:6
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The PHENIX experiment has measured the suppression of semi-inclusive single high-transverse-momentum pi(0)'s in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. The present understanding of this suppression is in terms of energy loss of the parent (fragmenting) parton in a dense color-charge medium. We have performed a quantitative comparison between various parton energy-loss models and our experimental data. The statistical point-to-point uncorrelated as well as correlated systematic uncertainties are taken into account in the comparison. We detail this methodology and the resulting constraint on the model parameters, such as the initial color-charge density dN(g)/dy, the medium transport coefficient <(q) over cap >, or the initial energy-loss parameter epsilon(0). We find that high-transverse-momentum pi(0) suppression in Au+Au collisions has sufficient precision to constrain these model-dependent parameters at the +/- 20-25% (one standard deviation) level. These constraints include only the experimental uncertainties, and further studies are needed to compute the corresponding theoretical uncertainties.
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| 37. |
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| 38. |
- Adare, A., et al.
(author)
-
Transverse momentum and centrality dependence of dihadron correlations in Au plus Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV: Jet quenching and the response of partonic matter
- 2008
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 77:1, s. 6-011901
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Azimuthal angle (Delta phi) correlations are presented for charged hadrons from dijets for 0.4 < p(T)< 10 GeV/c in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV. With increasing p(T), the away-side distribution evolves from a broad and relatively flat shape to a concave shape, then to a convex shape. Comparisons to p+p data suggest that the away-side can be divided into a partially suppressed "head" region centered at Delta phi similar to pi and an enhanced "shoulder" region centered at Delta phi similar to pi +/- 1.1. The p(T) spectrum for the head region softens toward central collisions, consistent with the onset of jet quenching. The spectral slope for the shoulder region is independent of centrality and trigger p(T), which offers constraints on energy transport mechanisms and suggests that it contains the medium response to energetic jets.
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| 39. |
- Adler, S. S., et al.
(author)
-
Transverse-energy distributions at midrapidity in p plus p, d plus Au, and Au plus Au collisions at root s(NN)=62.4-200 GeV and implications for particle-production models
- 2014
-
In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 89:4
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Measurements of the midrapidity transverse-energy distribution, dE(T)/d eta, are presented for p + p, d+Au, and Au+Au collisions atv root s(NN) = 200 GeV and additionally for Au+Au collisions atv root s(NN) = 62.4 and 130 GeV. The dE(T)/d eta distributions are first compared with the number of nucleon participants N-part, number of binary collisions N-coll, and number of constituent-quark participants N-qp calculated from a Glauber model based on the nuclear geometry. For Au+Au, < dE(T)/d eta >/N-part increases with N-part, while < dE(T)/d eta >/N-qp is approximately constant for all three energies. This indicates that the two-component ansatz, dE(T)/d eta alpha (1 - x)N-part/2 + xN(coll), which was used to represent E-T distributions, is simply a proxy for N-qp, and that the N-coll term does not represent a hard-scattering component in E-T distributions. The dE(T)/d eta distributions of Au+Au and d+Au are then calculated from the measured p + p E-T distribution using two models that both reproduce the Au+Au data. However, while the number-of-constituent-quark-participant model agrees well with the d+Au data, the additive-quark model does not.
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| 40. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Anisotropy In Cosmic-Ray Arrival Directions In The Southern Hemisphere Based On Six Years Of Data From The Icecube Detector
- 2016
-
In: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 826:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The IceCube Neutrino Observatory accumulated a total of 318 billion cosmic-ray-induced muon events between 2009 May and 2015 May. This data set was used for a detailed analysis of the sidereal anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays in the TeV to PeV energy range. The observed global sidereal anisotropy features large regions of relative excess and deficit, with amplitudes of the order of 10(-3) up to about 100 TeV. A decomposition of the arrival direction distribution into spherical harmonics shows that most of the power is contained in the low-multipole (l <= 4) moments. However, higher multipole components are found to be statistically significant down to an angular scale of less than 10 degrees, approaching the angular resolution of the detector. Above 100 TeV, a change in the morphology of the arrival direction distribution is observed, and the anisotropy is characterized by a wide relative deficit whose amplitude increases with primary energy up to at least 5 PeV, the highest energies currently accessible to IceCube. No time dependence of the large-and small-scale structures is observed in the period of six years covered by this analysis. The high-statistics data set reveals more details of the properties of the anisotropy and is potentially able to shed light on the various physical processes that are responsible for the complex angular structure and energy evolution.
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| 41. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Determining neutrino oscillation parameters from atmospheric muon neutrino disappearance with three years of IceCube DeepCore data
- 2015
-
In: Physical Review D. - 1550-7998 .- 1550-2368. ; 91:7
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present a measurement of neutrino oscillations via atmospheric muon neutrino disappearance with three years of data of the completed IceCube neutrino detector. DeepCore, a region of denser IceCube instrumentation, enables the detection and reconstruction of atmospheric muon neutrinos between 10 and 100 GeV, where a strong disappearance signal is expected. The IceCube detector volume surrounding DeepCore is used as a veto region to suppress the atmospheric muon background. Neutrino events are selected where the detected Cherenkov photons of the secondary particles minimally scatter, and the neutrino energy and arrival direction are reconstructed. Both variables are used to obtain the neutrino oscillation parameters from the data, with the best fit given by Delta m(32)(2) = 2.72(-0.20)(+0.19) x 10(-3) eV(2) and sin(2)theta(23) = 0.53(-0.12)(+0.09) (normal mass ordering assumed). The results are compatible, and comparable in precision, to those of dedicated oscillation experiments.
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| 42. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Evidence for Astrophysical Muon Neutrinos from the Northern Sky with IceCube
- 2015
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 115:8
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Results from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory have recently provided compelling evidence for the existence of a high energy astrophysical neutrino flux utilizing a dominantly Southern Hemisphere data set consisting primarily of nu(e) and nu(tau) charged-current and neutral-current ( cascade) neutrino interactions. In the analysis presented here, a data sample of approximately 35 000 muon neutrinos from the Northern sky is extracted from data taken during 659.5 days of live time recorded between May 2010 and May 2012. While this sample is composed primarily of neutrinos produced by cosmic ray interactions in Earth's atmosphere, the highest energy events are inconsistent with a hypothesis of solely terrestrial origin at 3.7 sigma significance. These neutrinos can, however, be explained by an astrophysical flux per neutrino flavor at a level of Phi(E-nu) = 9.9(-3.4)(+3.9) x 10(-19) GeV-1 cm(-2) sr(-1) s(-1) (E-nu/100 TeV)(-2), consistent with IceCube's Southern-Hemisphere-dominated result. Additionally, a fit for an astrophysical flux with an arbitrary spectral index is performed. We find a spectral index of 2.2(-0.2)(+0.2), which is also in good agreement with the Southern Hemisphere result.
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| 43. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
IceCube search for dark matter annihilation in nearby galaxies and galaxy clusters
- 2013
-
In: Physical Review D. - 1550-7998 .- 1550-2368. ; 88:12
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present the results of a first search for self-annihilating dark matter in nearby galaxies and galaxy clusters using a sample of high-energy neutrinos acquired in 339.8 days of live time during 2009/10 with the IceCube neutrino observatory in its 59-string configuration. The targets of interest include the Virgo and Coma galaxy clusters, the Andromeda galaxy, and several dwarf galaxies. We obtain upper limits on the cross section as a function of the weakly interacting massive particle mass between 300 GeV and 100 TeV for the annihilation into b (b) over bar, W+(W) over bar (-), tau(+)tau(-), mu(+)mu(-) , and nu(nu) over bar. A limit derived for the Virgo cluster, when assuming a large effect from subhalos, challenges the weakly interacting massive particle interpretation of a recently observed GeV positron excess in cosmic rays.
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| 44. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Improvement in fast particle track reconstruction with robust statistics
- 2014
-
In: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-9002 .- 1872-9576. ; 736, s. 143-149
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The IceCube project has transformed 1 km(3) of deep natural Antarctic ice into a Cherenkov detector Muon neutrinos are detected and their direction is inferred by mapping the light produced by the secondary muon track inside the volume instrumented with photomultipliers. Reconstructing the muon track from the observed light is challenging due to noise, light scattering in the ice medium, and the possibility of simultaneously having multiple muons inside the detector, resulting from the large flux of cosmic ray muons. This paper describes work on two problems: (1) the truck reconstruction problem, in which, given a set of observations, the goal is to recover the track of a muon; and (2) the coincident event problem, which is to determine how many muons are active in the detector during a time window. Rather than solving these problems by developing more complex physical models that are applied at later stages of the analysis, our approach is to augment the detector's early reconstruction with data filters and robust statistical techniques. These can be implemented at the level of on-line reconstruction and, therefore, improve all subsequent reconstructions. Using the metric of median angular resolution, a standard metric for track reconstruction, we improve the accuracy in the initial reconstruction direction by 13%. We also present improvements in measuring the number of muons in coincident events: we can accurately determine the number of muons 98% of the time.
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| 45. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Measurement of South Pole ice transparency with the IceCube LED calibration system
- 2013
-
In: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-9002 .- 1872-9576. ; 711, s. 73-89
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, approximately 1 km(3) in size, is now complete with 86 strings deployed in the Antarctic ice. IceCube detects the Cherenkov radiation emitted by charged particles passing through or created in the ice. To realize the full potential of the detector, the properties of light propagation in the ice in and around the detector must be well understood. This report presents a new method of fitting the model of light propagation in the ice to a data set of in situ light source events collected with IceCube. The resulting set of derived parameters, namely the measured values of scattering and absorption coefficients vs. depth, is presented and a comparison of IceCube data with simulations based on the new model is shown.
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| 46. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Measurement of the Atmospheric nu(e) Spectrum with IceCube
- 2015
-
In: Physical Review D. - 1550-7998 .- 1550-2368. ; 91:12
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present a measurement of the atmospheric nu(e) spectrum at energies between 0.1 and 100 TeV using data from the first year of the complete IceCube detector. Atmospheric nu(e) originate mainly from the decays of kaons produced in cosmic-ray air showers. This analysis selects 1078 fully contained events in 332 days of live time, and then identifies those consistent with particle showers. A likelihood analysis with improved event selection extends our previous measurement of the conventional v(e) fluxes to higher energies. The data constrain the conventional nu(e) flux to be 1.3(-0.3)(+0.4) times a baseline prediction from a Honda's calculation, including the knee of the cosmic-ray spectrum. A fit to the kaon contribution (xi) to the neutrino flux finds a kaon component that is xi = 1.3(-0.4)(+0.5) times the baseline value. The fitted/measured prompt neutrino flux from charmed hadron decays strongly depends on the assumed astrophysical flux and shape. If the astrophysical component follows a power law, the result for the prompt flux is 0.0(-0.0)(+3.0) times a calculated flux based on the work by Enberg, Reno, and Sarcevic.
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| 47. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum with IceTop-73
- 2013
-
In: Physical Review D. - 1550-7998 .- 1550-2368. ; 88:4, s. 042004-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report on the measurement of the all-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum with the IceTop air shower array in the energy range from 1.58 PeV to 1.26 EeV. The IceTop air shower array is the surface component of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the geographical South Pole. The analysis was performed using only information from IceTop. The data used in this work were taken from June 1, 2010 to May 13, 2011. During that period the IceTop array consisted of 73 stations, compared to 81 in its final configuration. The measured spectrum exhibits a clear deviation from a single power law above the knee around 4 PeV and below 1 EeV. We observe spectral hardening around 18 PeV and steepening around 130 PeV.
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| 48. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Search for astrophysical tau neutrinos in three years of IceCube data
- 2016
-
In: Physical Review D. - 1550-7998 .- 1550-2368. ; 93:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has observed a diffuse flux of TeV-PeVastrophysical neutrinos at 5.7 sigma significance from an all-flavor search. The direct detection of tau neutrinos in this flux has yet to occur. Tau neutrinos become distinguishable from other flavors in IceCube at energies above a few hundred TeV, when the cascade from the tau neutrino charged current interaction becomes resolvable from the cascade from the tau lepton decay. This paper presents results from the first dedicated search for tau neutrinos with energies between 214 TeV and 72 PeV in the full IceCube detector. The analysis searches for IceCube optical sensors that observe two separate pulses in a single event-one from the tau neutrino interaction and a second from the tau decay. No candidate events were observed in three years of IceCube data. For the first time, a differential upper limit on astrophysical tau neutrinos is derived around the PeV energy region, which is nearly 3 orders of magnitude lower in energy than previous limits from dedicated tau neutrino searches.
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| 49. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Search for dark matter annihilation in the Galactic Center with IceCube-79
- 2015
-
In: European Physical Journal C. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 75:10
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Milky Way is expected to be embedded in a halo of dark matter particles, with the highest density in the central region, and decreasing density with the halo-centric radius. Dark matter might be indirectly detectable at Earth through a flux of stable particles generated in dark matter annihilations and peaked in the direction of the Galactic Center. We present a search for an excess flux of muon (anti-) neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the Galactic Center using the cubic-kilometer-sized IceCube neutrino detector at the South Pole. There, the Galactic Center is always seen above the horizon. Thus, new and dedicated veto techniques against atmospheric muons are required to make the southern hemisphere accessible for IceCube. We used 319.7 live-days of data from IceCube operating in its 79-string configuration during 2010 and 2011. No neutrino excess was found and the final result is compatible with the background. We present upper limits on the self-annihilation cross-section, < sAv >, for WIMP masses ranging from 30GeV up to 10TeV, assuming cuspy (NFW) and flat-cored (Burkert) dark matter halo profiles, reaching down to similar or equal to 4 . 10(-24) cm(3) s(-1), and similar or equal to 2.6 . 10(-23) cm(3) s(-1) for the nu(nu) over bar channel, respectively.
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| 50. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
-
Search for neutrino-induced particle showers with IceCube-40
- 2014
-
In: Physical Review D. - 1550-7998 .- 1550-2368. ; 89:10, s. 102001-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report on the search for neutrino-induced particle showers, so-called cascades, in the IceCube-40 detector. The data for this search were collected between April 2008 and May 2009 when the first 40 IceCube strings were deployed and operational. Three complementary searches were performed, each optimized for different energy regimes. The analysis with the lowest energy threshold (2 TeV) targeted atmospheric neutrinos. A total of 67 events were found, consistent with the expectation of 41 atmospheric muons and 30 atmospheric neutrino events. The two other analyses targeted a harder, astrophysical neutrino flux. The analysis with an intermediate threshold of 25 TeV leads to the observation of 14 cascadelike events, again consistent with the prediction of 3.0 atmospheric neutrino and 7.7 atmospheric muon events. We hence set an upper limit of E-2 Phi(lim) <= 7.46 x 10(-8) GeV sr(-1) s(-1) cm(-2) (90% C.L.) on the diffuse flux from astrophysical neutrinos of all neutrino flavors, applicable to the energy range 25 TeV to 5 PeV, assuming an E-nu(-2) spectrum and a neutrino flavor ratio of 1: 1: 1 at the Earth. The third analysis utilized a larger and optimized sample of atmospheric muon background simulation, leading to a higher energy threshold of 100 TeV. Three events were found over a background prediction of 0.04 atmospheric muon events and 0.21 events from the flux of conventional and prompt atmospheric neutrinos. Including systematic errors this corresponds to a 2.7 sigma excess with respect to the background-only hypothesis. Our observation of neutrino event candidates above 100 TeV complements IceCube's recently observed evidence for high-energy astrophysical neutrinos.
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