The hunt for cosmic neutrino sources with IceCube

TL;DR

This paper reports preliminary results from IceCube's search for cosmic neutrino sources using early data from its partially completed detector at the South Pole.

Contribution

It presents the first search for point-like neutrino sources with data from the IceCube detector during its initial operational phases.

Findings

Initial constraints on cosmic neutrino sources

Detection techniques for neutrino point sources

Progress in IceCube's neutrino astronomy capabilities

Abstract

IceCube is a cubic-kilometer neutrino telescope under construction at the geographic South Pole. Once completed it will comprise 4800 optical sensors deployed on 80 vertical strings at depths in the ice between 1450 and 2450 meters. Part of the array is already operational and data was recorded in the configurations with 9 (year 2006/2007), 22 (year 2007/2008) and 40-strings (year 2008/2009) respectively. Here we report preliminary results on the search for point-like neutrino sources using data collected with the first 22 strings (IC-22).