AMANDA 2004

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

This is a renewal proposal to continue operating the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Array (AMANDA) at the South Pole Station through 2004-2006. The AMANDA uses natural 1.5-mile deep Antarctic ice as a Cerenkov detector. The telescope's effective area has reached 40,000 sq. m for the detection of point sources of cosmic neutrinos and exceeds 50,000 sq. m for gamma ray bursts at all zenith angles. The AMANDA detector has now operated for more than three years in its final configuration of 677 optical modules on deployed 19 strings. The detector collects approximately 4 terabytes of data yearly. These data are filtered at a high level at the South Pole and transmitted back to UW-Madison at a rate of about 3 gigabytes per day via the geostationary satellite systems and stored for further analysis and distribution to the AMANDA collaboration. Also stored are simulation data needed to analyze the experimental data. Presently 6 TB of AMANDA data is held online on large high availability RAID arrays. To enhance the quality of data management UW-AMANDA is taking the lead in adapting the DIF metadata standard to astrophysics. The scientific analyses in AMANDA can be classified as follows: (a) Atmospheric muon flux: the cosmic ray muon flux has been used to do a precision calibration of the detector with high statistics; (b) Atmospheric neutrinos: AMANDA's performance has been calibrated by reconstructing upward-going muons produced by atmospheric muon neutrinos. The detector, in steady operation, collects roughly four neutrinos per day using fast on-line analysis software. The atmospheric neutrino spectrum is now measured up to 100 TeV; (c) Cascades produced by the secondary electromagnetic and hadronic showers initiated by electron and tau neutrinos. The flux level is approaching where the much lower atmospheric neutrino fluxes should be observed, as well as the prompt flux from the decay of heavy quarks can be measured; (d) Search for point sources of cosmic neutrinos such as supernova remnants, mini-quasars, active galaxies; (e) Search for a diffuse flux of cosmic neutrinos; (f) Search for gamma ray bursts; and (g) Extremely high energy events from cosmological remnants or mini-black holes, magnetic monopoles, cold dark matter particles. The UW plays a major role in all analyses except for the last one. With the University of Delaware, the UW group determined that the fraction of heavy elements in the cosmic ray flux increases with energy in the region of the knee, by studying the muon response of AMANDA to air showers detected by the SPASE array deployed at the surface. The UW AMANDA group has pioneered many of the programs that are now part of the extensive IceCube education and outreach program including the Science in the Ice course that involves high school teachers and their students, as well as participants in the TEA (Teacher Experience in Antarctica) program.