Michigan State University

 

Neutrinos, tiny ghostlike particles billions of times lighter than atoms, are unique messengers to the cosmos. They are created under exceptional circumstances— from the nuclear fusion of the sun to the cores of exploding stars. Neutrinos are chargeless and interact very weakly, and so arrive from the far reaches of the universe. Unfortunately, they are notoriously difficult to detect, and their scarcity requires enormous detectors. In this talk, I will describe the Askaryan Radio Array and IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Both are detectors at the South Pole designed to find neutrinos by looking for the light emitted in neutrino interactions with the ice. Both collect over 100 million events per year, most of which are background, and so analysis of these detectors requires use of modern big data methods and scientific computing. I will highlight the exciting first decade of science in neutrino astronomy, and describe the latest results from the experiments. I will conclude by discussing prospects and plans for the extension to an even larger next generation detector, IceCube-Gen2.