CAREER: Experimental Particle Astrophysics with High Energy Neutrinos in IceCube

Suny At Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

Neutrinos are unique cosmic messengers that complement cosmic rays and gamma rays in the on-going quest to identify and understand the most powerful cosmic accelerators in the Universe. This award will support research that will yield new insights in the diffuse astrophysical electron and tau neutrino energy spectrum and its characteristics delineated by hemisphere. Anisotropy, if it is found, will provide evidence for a galactic and an extragalactic origin of the recently discovered astrophysical neutrinos. The energy spectrum will confirm or refute the characteristics predicted by theoretical models on the possible sources of the high-energy diffuse neutrino flux and may also probe non-'Standard Model' physics. By integrating forefront research with education and outreach, the PI seeks to broaden the career prospects for SBU physics students and to expand and diversify the pool of students in STEM fields. She will continue her productive collaboration with the successful SBU Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program, designed to increase the number and fraction women in STEM fields, in education and outreach. A novel instrumentation component for WISE undergraduate students, designed to narrow the gender-gap in instrumentation-oriented experiences, will incorporate innovations in micro-controllers and 'cloud-computing' in Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance (solar flare) monitoring stations for educational use at SBU and local schools in high-need districts. This research program will utilize electron and tau neutrino detection in IceCube targeting the energy and flavor characteristics of the recently discovered diffuse flux of highly energetic neutrinos. The data will yield sensitivity to the flavor composition of the diffuse neutrino flux. As part of this research program, the atmospheric neutrino flux will be measured into the high-energy region that is sensitive to the thus-far unobserved prompt component and a novel method will be used to measure the neutrino-nucleon cross section covering the thus-far inaccessible TeV - PeV neutrino energy range.