Neutrino astronomy with the next generation IceCube Neutrino Observatory

TL;DR

The paper discusses the future of neutrino astronomy with IceCube-Gen2, highlighting planned upgrades that aim to enhance the detection and understanding of cosmic neutrinos and their sources in the universe.

Contribution

It introduces the planned IceCube-Gen2 detector, outlining how it will advance the precision and scope of cosmic neutrino observations beyond current capabilities.

Findings

Discovery of cosmic neutrinos has opened new astrophysical insights.

Planned upgrades will significantly increase detection sensitivity and source localization.

Next-generation observatory aims to explore fundamental physics at high energies.

Abstract

The past decade has welcomed the emergence of cosmic neutrinos as a new messenger to explore the most extreme environments of the universe. The discovery measurement of cosmic neutrinos, announced by IceCube in 2013, has opened a new window of observation that has already resulted in new fundamental information that holds the potential to answer key questions associated with the high-energy universe, including: what are the sources in the PeV sky and how do they drive particle acceleration; where are cosmic rays of extreme energies produced, and on which paths do they propagate through the universe; and are there signatures of new physics at TeV-PeV energies and above? The planned advancements in neutrino telescope arrays in the next decade, in conjunction with continued progress in broad multimessenger astrophysics, promise to elevate the cosmic neutrino field from the discovery to the precision era and to a survey of the sources in the neutrino sky. The planned detector upgrades to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, culminating in IceCube-Gen2 (an envisaged $400M facility with anticipated operation in the next decade, described in this white paper) are the cornerstone that will drive the evolution of neutrino astrophysics measurements.