Chapter 17
Neutrino Detectors Under Water and Ice
Christian Spiering
17.1 Introduction
Underwater/ice neutrino telescopes are multi-purpose detectors covering astrophysical, particle physics and environmental aspects [1–3]. Among them, the
detection of the feeble fluxes of astrophysical neutrinos which should accompany
the production of high energy cosmic rays is the clear primary goal [4, 5]. Since
these neutrinos can escape much denser celestial bodies than light, they can trace
processes hidden to traditional astronomy. Different to gamma rays, neutrinos
provide incontrovertible evidence for hadronic acceleration. On the other hand,
their extremely low interaction cross section makes their detection extraordinarily
difficult.
Figure 17.1 shows a compilation of the spectra of dominant natural and artificial
neutrino fluxes. Solar neutrinos, burst neutrinos from SN-1987A, reactor neutrinos,
terrestrial neutrinos from radioactive decay processes in the Earth and neutrinos generated in cosmic ray interactions in the Earth atmosphere (“atmospheric neutrinos”)
have been already detected. Two guaranteed—although not yet detected—fluxes
are the diffuse flux of neutrinos from past supernovae (marked “background from
old supernovae”) and the flux of neutrinos generated in collisions of ultra-energetic
protons with the 3 K cosmic microwave background [6] (marked GZK after Greisen,
Zatsepin and Kuzmin [7] who first considered such collisions). These neutrinos will
hopefully be detected in the next decade. Neutrinos in the TeV-PeV range emerging
from acceleration sites of cosmic rays (marked AGN after “Active Galactic Nuclei”)
have been detected in 2013 with IceCube [8]. No practicable idea exists how to
detect 1.9 K cosmological neutrinos.
C. Spiering ()
DESY, Zeuthen, Germany
e-mail: christian.spiering@desy.de
© The Author(s) 2020
C. W. Fabjan, H. Schopper (eds.), Particle Physics Reference Library,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35318-6_17
785
Neutrino Detectors Under Water and Ice
Christian Spiering
17.1 Introduction
Underwater/ice neutrino telescopes are multi-purpose detectors covering astrophysical, particle physics and environmental aspects [1–3]. Among them, the
detection of the feeble fluxes of astrophysical neutrinos which should accompany
the production of high energy cosmic rays is the clear primary goal [4, 5]. Since
these neutrinos can escape much denser celestial bodies than light, they can trace
processes hidden to traditional astronomy. Different to gamma rays, neutrinos
provide incontrovertible evidence for hadronic acceleration. On the other hand,
their extremely low interaction cross section makes their detection extraordinarily
difficult.
Figure 17.1 shows a compilation of the spectra of dominant natural and artificial
neutrino fluxes. Solar neutrinos, burst neutrinos from SN-1987A, reactor neutrinos,
terrestrial neutrinos from radioactive decay processes in the Earth and neutrinos generated in cosmic ray interactions in the Earth atmosphere (“atmospheric neutrinos”)
have been already detected. Two guaranteed—although not yet detected—fluxes
are the diffuse flux of neutrinos from past supernovae (marked “background from
old supernovae”) and the flux of neutrinos generated in collisions of ultra-energetic
protons with the 3 K cosmic microwave background [6] (marked GZK after Greisen,
Zatsepin and Kuzmin [7] who first considered such collisions). These neutrinos will
hopefully be detected in the next decade. Neutrinos in the TeV-PeV range emerging
from acceleration sites of cosmic rays (marked AGN after “Active Galactic Nuclei”)
have been detected in 2013 with IceCube [8]. No practicable idea exists how to
detect 1.9 K cosmological neutrinos.
C. Spiering ()
DESY, Zeuthen, Germany
e-mail: christian.spiering@desy.de
© The Author(s) 2020
C. W. Fabjan, H. Schopper (eds.), Particle Physics Reference Library,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35318-6_17
785