Study of the internal structure of the Earth using neutrino oscillations at IceCube DeepCore

TL;DR

This paper explores Earth's internal structure by analyzing neutrino oscillations detected at IceCube DeepCore, offering an independent method to seismic and gravitational studies, and discusses future improvements with the IceCube Upgrade.

Contribution

It demonstrates the feasibility of using atmospheric neutrinos at IceCube DeepCore to estimate Earth's mass and internal layer densities, introducing a novel neutrino-based geophysical approach.

Findings

Neutrino oscillation data can provide estimates of Earth's mass and density.

The current DeepCore setup yields preliminary measurements of Earth's internal structure.

Future IceCube Upgrade will enhance the precision of these measurements.

Abstract

Earth's mass and internal structure have been primarily studied through gravitational and seismic methods. Neutrinos, however, offer an independent way to explore Earth's interior via matter effects in neutrino oscillations that depend on the electron distribution inside Earth, and hence its matter density. Our study uses atmospheric neutrinos at DeepCore, a densely instrumented sub-detector of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, to estimate Earth's mass and layer densities. We also assess how the upcoming IceCube Upgrade, with denser instrumentation, could improve these measurements.