IceCube: The Rationale for Kilometer-Scale Neutrino Detectors

TL;DR

This paper discusses the scientific motivation for building large-scale neutrino detectors like IceCube, emphasizing their potential to identify cosmic-ray sources and explore high-energy astrophysical phenomena.

Contribution

It revisits the rationale for kilometer-scale neutrino detectors, highlighting their role in uncovering the origins of cosmic rays and proposing potential neutrino sources such as gamma-ray bursts and active galaxies.

Findings

IceCube nearing completion enhances cosmic-ray source detection

Galactic cosmic-ray origins linked to supernova remnants

Extragalactic sources like gamma-ray bursts are promising neutrino emitters

Abstract

At a time when IceCube is nearing completion, we revisit the rationale for constructing kilometer-scale neutrino detectors. We focus on the prospect that such observatories reveal the still-enigmatic sources of cosmic rays. While only a "smoking gun" is missing for the case that the Galactic component of the cosmic-ray spectrum originates in supernova remnants, the origin of the extragalactic component remains a mystery. We speculate on neutrino emission from gamma-ray bursts and active galaxies.