Detection of Atmospheric Muon Neutrinos with the IceCube 9-String Detector

TL;DR

This paper reports on the detection of atmospheric muon neutrinos using the partially completed IceCube detector, demonstrating its capability to identify neutrino events consistent with theoretical expectations during early construction.

Contribution

First detection of atmospheric neutrinos with the IceCube 9-string configuration, validating the detector's ability to observe neutrino signals at the South Pole.

Findings

Detected 234 neutrino candidates in 137.4 days

Observed neutrino signal consistent with atmospheric neutrino models

Validated IceCube's capability for neutrino detection during early construction

Abstract

The IceCube neutrino detector is a cubic kilometer TeV to PeV neutrino detector under construction at the geographic South Pole. The dominant population of neutrinos detected in IceCube is due to meson decay in cosmic-ray air showers. These atmospheric neutrinos are relatively well-understood and serve as a calibration and verification tool for the new detector. In 2006, the detector was approximately 10% completed, and we report on data acquired from the detector in this configuration. We observe an atmospheric neutrino signal consistent with expectations, demonstrating that the IceCube detector is capable of identifying neutrino events. In the first 137.4 days of livetime, 234 neutrino candidates were selected with an expectation of 211 +/- 76.1(syst.) +/- 14.5(stat.) events from atmospheric neutrinos.