ICECUBE-DEEPCORE-PINGU: FUNDAMENTAL NEUTRINO AND DARK MATTER PHYSICS AT THE SOUTH POLE

Abstract

The IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole uses 1 km3 of instrumented ice to detect both astrophysical and atmospheric neutrinos. Expanding the capabilities of the original design, the DeepCore sub-array is a low-energy extension to IceCube which will collect [Formula: see text] atmospheric neutrinos a year. The high statistics sample will allow DeepCore to make neutrino oscillation measurements at higher energies and longer baselines than current experiments. The first successful observation of neutrino induced cascades in a neutrino telescope has recently been observed in DeepCore, which upon further cultivation should help refine atmospheric neutrino flux models. Besides the fundamental neutrino physics, the low-energy reach of DeepCore, down to as low as 10 GeV, and multi-megaton effective volume will enhance indirect searches for WIMP-like dark matter. A new proposal seeking to lower the energy reach down to [Formula: see text] GeV known as the Phased IceCube Next Generation Upgrade (or PINGU) will also be described.