Astronomy Colloquium (2016 Fall Semester)

* Date

Nov. 10

* Speaker

Carsten Rott (Sungkyunkwan University)

* Title

The Birth of High-energy Neutrino Astronomy

* Abstract

IceCube recently reported the observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, which marks the beginning of the age of neutrino astronomy.
Neutrinos open up a new window to the universe, which will inevitably result into new discoveries. The talk will describe the IceCube Neutrino Telescope, which utilizes a cubic kilometer of ultra-pure Antarctic ice at the geographic South Pole as detector medium. Current results including the search that led to the discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos will be summarized. The mystery of the origin of the most energetic neutrinos ever observed will be discussed and the prospects for identifying cosmic accelerators with IceCube and potential upgrades will be reviewed.