Ph.D. Thesis: A search for ultra-high energy neutrinos with AMANDA-II
by
Christin Wiedemann(Stockholm University, Department of Physics)
→
Europe/Stockholm
FB54
FB54
Description
High-energy neutrinos are capabel of carrying information over vast distances, and neutrino telescopes such as AMANDA-II provide the means to probe deep inside the violent and energetic interior of the universe. AMANDA-II is located in the glacial ice at South Pole in Antarctica and is optimised to detect Cherenkov emission from neutrino-induced muon tracks with energied above 100 GeV.
Data acquired in 2003 with the AMANDA-II detector were searched for a non-localised flux of neutrinos with energies in excess of 1 PeV. Because of the energy dependence of the neutrino mean free path, the Earch is essentially opaque to neutrinos above PeV energies. Combined with the limited overburden of the AMANDA-II detector (about 1.5 km), this means that a potential ultra-high energy neutrino signal will be concentrated at the horizon. The background for the analysis consists of large undles of muons produced in atmospheric air showers. Owing to their energy losses, muions cannot penetrate the Earth, and the background will be downwards moving.