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Subject Antarctic Neutrino Observatory Detects Unexplained High-Energy Particles

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Original Message Hot on the heels of detecting the two highest-energy neutrinos ever observed, scientists working with a mammoth particle detector buried in ice near the South Pole unveiled preliminary data showing that they also registered the signal of 26 additional high-energy neutrinos. The newfound neutrinos are somewhat less energetic than the two record-setters but nonetheless appear to carry more energy than would be expected if created by cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere—a prodigious source of neutrinos raining down on Earth. The particles thus may point to unknown energetic astrophysical processes deeper in the cosmos.

“The result right now is very preliminary,” cautions Nathan Whitehorn of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who described the new data May 15 during a symposium in Madison on particle astrophysics. “We’re not totally certain right now that it’s from an astrophysical source.” But it is difficult to explain the number and energy of the detected particles by invoking known processes within the solar system. “If this does in fact hold up with more data, and this does turn out to be an astrophysical source, then we’ll be able to address some questions in ways that were totally inaccessible before,” Whitehorn adds.

IceCube physicists are working to understand the origins of high-energy cosmic rays—charged particles from space that strike Earth—which may bear on the origins of the neutrinos as well. “Basically everything you could think of that would make cosmic rays would make neutrinos at the same time,” Whitehorn says. In contrast to neutrinos produced locally when cosmic rays strike the atmosphere, astrophysical neutrinos would originate at the same source as the cosmic rays themselves.

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[link to www.scientificamerican.com]

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