- Email: [email protected]
High-energy neutrino astronomy
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Physics Reports 333}334 (2000) 349}364
High-energy neutrino astronomy Francis Halzen Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, USA
Abstract With the completion of the "rst-generation Lake Baikal and AMANDA detectors 1998 represents a milestone in neutrino astronomy. Neutrino signals from the Lake Baikal detector bode well for the #urry of R&D activities leading to the deployment of similar instruments in the Mediterranean. The AMANDA telescope announced "rst light, neutrinos actually, and produced results that validate plans for commissioning a kilometer-scale detector in Antarctic ice. Although high-energy neutrino astronomy is a multidisciplinary science, gamma-ray bursts have, with supermassive black holes, become the theoretical focus since recent astronomical observations revealed their potential as cosmic particle accelerators. This spotlight is shared with investigations of the potential of high-energy telescopes to observe oscillating neutrinos. The Superkamiokande results have boosted atmospheric neutrinos from a calibration tool and a background for doing astronomy, to an opportunity to con"rm the evidence for neutrino mass. 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 95.55.Vj; 95.85.Sz; 98.70.Rz
1. Neutrino astronomy: multidisciplinary science Using optical sensors buried in the deep clear ice or deployed in deep ocean and lake waters, neutrino astronomers are attacking major problems in astronomy, astrophysics, cosmic-ray physics and particle physics by commissioning a "rst generation of neutrino telescopes [1]. According to estimates covering a wide range of scienti"c objectives, a neutrino telescope with e!ective telescope area of 1 km is required to address the most fundamental questions [2]. Planning is already underway to instrument a cubic volume of ice, 1 km on the side, as a neutrino detector. This infrastructure provides unique opportunities for yet more interdisciplinary science covering the geosciences and biology.
E-mail address: [email protected] (F. Halzen). 0370-1573/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 7 0 - 1 5 7 3 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 2 9 - 6
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Among the many problems which high-energy neutrino telescopes will address are the origin of cosmic rays, the engines which power active galaxies (AGN), the nature of gamma-ray bursts (GRB), the search for the annihilation products of halo cold dark matter and, possibly, even the structure of the Earth's interior. In burst mode they scan the sky for galactic supernovae and, more speculatively, for the birth of supermassive black holes. Coincident experiments with Earth- and space-based gamma-ray observatories, cosmic-ray telescopes and gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO can be contemplated. With high-energy neutrino astrophysics we are poised to open a new window into space and back in time to the highest-energy processes in the Universe. 1.1. Cosmic particle accelerators: PeV neutrinos Recently, GRBs may have become the best-motivated source for high-energy neutrinos [3]. Although neutrino emission may be less copious and less energetic than anticipated in some models of active galaxies, the predicted #uxes can be calculated in a relatively model-independent way. There is increasing observational support for a model of GRB where an initial event involving neutron stars, black holes or the collapse of highly magnetized rotating stars, deposits a solar mass of energy into a radius of order 100 km. Such a state is opaque to light. The observed gamma-ray display is the result of a relativistic shock which expands the original "reball by a factor 10 in 1 s. Gamma rays arise by synchrotron radiation by relativistic electrons accelerated in the shock, possibly followed by inverse-Compton scattering. It has been suggested [4] that the same cataclysmic events produce the highest energy cosmic rays. This association is reinforced by more than the phenomenal energy and luminosity. Both GRBs and the highest energy cosmic rays are produced in cosmological sources, i.e., distributed throughout the Universe. Also, the average rate EQ K4;10 ergs Mpc\ yr\ at which energy is injected into the Universe as gamma-rays from GRBs is similar to the rate at which energy must be injected in the highest energy cosmic rays in order to produce the observed cosmic-ray #ux beyond the `anklea in the spectrum near 10 eV. The association of cosmic rays with GRBs obviously requires that kinetic energy in the initial shock is converted into the acceleration of protons as well as electrons. It is assumed that the e$ciency with which kinetic energy is converted to accelerated protons is comparable to that for electrons. The production of high-energy neutrinos is inevitably a feature of the "reball model because the protons will photoproduce pions and, therefore, neutrinos in interactions with the gamma-rays in the burst. We have a beam dump con"guration where both the beam and target are constrained by observation: the beam by the observed cosmic-ray spectrum and the photon target by astronomical measurements of the high-energy photon #ux. From an observational point of view, the predicted #ux can be summarized in terms of the main ingredients of the model:
f N (km\ yr\)K25 L J 15%
EQ 4;10 ergs Mpc\ yr\
\ E J , 700 TeV
(1)
i.e., we expect 25 events in a km detector in one year [5]. Here f , estimated to be 15%, is the L e$ciency by which proton energy is converted into the production of pions and EQ is the total
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injection rate into GRBs averaged over volume and time. It is determined by particle physics, as is the energy of the neutrinos which simply re#ects the threshold for photoproduction of pions by the protons on the GRB photons in the shock. Note that GRBs produce a `bursta spectrum of neutrinos. After folding the falling GRB energy spectrum with the increasing detection e$ciency, a burst energy distribution results centered on an average energy of several hundred TeV. Interestingly, this #ux may be observable in "rst-generation detectors. The e!ective area for the detection of 100 TeV neutrinos can approach 0.1 km as a result of the large size of the events. A l of this energy initiates an electromagnetic shower which produces single photoelectron signals C in ice over a radius of 250 m. The e!ective area for a l is larger because the muon has a range of I 10 km (water-equivalent) and produces single photoelectrons as far as 200 m from the track by catastrophic energy losses. Because these spectacular events arrive with the GRB time-stamp of order 1 s precision and with an unmistakable high-energy signature, background rejection is greatly simpli"ed. Although, on average, we expect much less than one event per burst, a relatively near burst would produce multiple events in a single second. The considerable simpli"cation of observing high-energy neutrinos in the burst mode has inspired proposals for highly simpli"ed dedicated detectors [6]. The importance of making GRB observations cannot be overemphasized [3]: E E E
E
E
The observations are a direct probe of the "reball model of GRBs. They may unveil the source of the highest energy cosmic rays. The zenith angle distribution of the GRB neutrinos may reveal the appearance of l in what was O a l , l beam at its origin. The appearance experiment with a baseline of thousands of megaparC I secs has a sensitivity to oscillations of *m as low as 10\ eV, as previously discussed. The relative timing of photons and neutrinos over cosmological distances will allow unrivaled tests of special relativity. The fact that photons and neutrinos should su!er the same time delay travelling through the gravitational "eld of our galaxy will lead to better tests of the weak equivalence principle.
AGN are the other bright gamma-ray sources in the Universe. Their engines must not only be powerful, but also extremely compact because their luminosities are observed to #are by over an order of magnitude over time periods as short as hours [7]. Only sites in the vicinity of black holes which are a billion times more massive than our sun, will do. It is generally believed that the electromagnetic spectrum at all wavelengths, from radio waves to TeV gamma-rays, is produced in the interactions of the accelerated electrons with the magnetic "elds and ambient photons in the galaxy. If protons are accelerated along with electrons to PeV}EeV energy, they will produce high-energy photons by photoproduction of neutral pions on the ubiquitous UV thermal background [8]. Although the relative merits of the electron and proton acceleration are hotly debated, it is more relevant that the issues can be settled experimentally. Proton acceleration turns AGN into sources of high-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos, not just gamma rays. Weakly interacting neutrinos can, unlike high-energy gamma rays and high-energy cosmic rays, reach us from more distant and much more powerful AGN. The opportunities for high-energy neutrino astronomy are wonderfully obvious [1]. Models have mostly focussed on acceleration in the jets beamed perpendicular to the accretion disc. It is assumed that particles are accelerated by Fermi shocks in blobs of matter travelling along the jet with a bulk Lorentz factor of c&10, possibly higher, relative to the observer. In order to
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accommodate bursts lasting a day, or less, in the observer's frame, the size of the blob must be of order cc*t&10\ pc or less. The blobs are actually more like sheets, thinner than the jet's size of roughly 1 pc. The transformation between blob and observer is R "cR and E "1/cE for distances and energies, respectively. Here primes refer to a frame attached to the blob. The observed radiation at all wavelengths is produced by the interaction of the accelerated particles in the blob and the ambient radiation in the AGN. From the observed photon luminosity ¸ we derive the energy density of photons in the shocked A region, ¸ *t 1 ¸ ¸ *t & A . (2) ; " A & A A pR c (cc*t) c*t With high luminosities ¸ emitted over short *t, the large photon density renders the blob opaque A to photons of 10 TeV energy and above unless c is very large. A large c factor, typically larger than 10, is the agent that dilutes the blob until 10 TeV c's fall below the ccPe>e\ threshold in the blob. Similarity with the mechanism which produces GRBs is obvious. Only transparent sources with large boost factors emit TeV photons. They are weak neutrino sources because, even if the TeV photon is of p origin, one can only expect one neutrino per photon, and this translates into observation of only a few events per year in a kilometer-scale detector [9]. A source with the same morphology, but cK1, is completely opaque to high-energy photons and protons. It is a `hiddena source, with reduced or extinct emission of high-energy particles, but abundant neutrino production by protons on the high-density photon target. Nature presumably made AGN with a distribution of boost factors; observed boost factors are actually typically less than 10. While uninteresting for high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, hidden sources have the potential to be powerful neutrino emitters with #uxes exceeding those of TeV gamma-ray sources by several orders of magnitude; a representative range of models is shown in Fig. 1a. Highlighted is the pioneering calculation by Stecker and collaborators who integrated the neutrino #ux from single generic AGN to obtain a di!use #ux from all cosmological AGN. In their model protons are accelerated at a shock in the accretion #ow which is formed where its ram pressure balances the radiation pressure near the central black hole. In Fig. 1b we show the #ux of neutrino-induced muons in the AMANDA detector produced by the di!use #ux. We will describe the details of the instrument further on. Also shown is the background produced by lower energy atmospheric neutrinos. Although energy measurement of the neutrinos is di$cult, the weak correlation between energy of the muon and the number of optical modules reporting in the event (in high-energy events additional photoelectrons are produced by the increased catastrophic energy loss) is su$cient to exclude the excess of high-energy events above 1 TeV predicted in Fig. 1b. Straightforward statistics limits a di!use neutrino #ux in excess of the atmospheric #ux at the level of the Stecker et al. prediction [10]: EU 43.6;10\ (cm s sr)\ GeV . (3) J Models in Fig. 1a exceeding this highlighted #ux are ruled out. They can also obtain a limit on the neutrino #ux from individual AGN from the absence of an excess of neutrino candidates in the AMANDA sky plot [10], e.g. in 85 days and in the direction of a hypothetical source at
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Fig. 1. (a) Predictions for the di!use neutrino background from AGN are confronted with the atmospheric neutrino background. (b) Response of the detector-to-signal and background in (a).
a declination of 653, two events are observed within resolution. From the e!ective area of 10000 m, obtained from Monte Carlo simulation of the detector response for a E\ spectrum after the cuts applied, they obtain a limit U ('1 TeV)43.6;10\ (cm s)\ (4) J at the 90% CL. Since this analysis, (i) better reconstruction software and detector calibration of AMANDA has resulted in a factor 2 improvement in resolution, (ii) they have analyzed only 20%
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of the data, and (iii) with the AMANDA II deployment their e!ective area should improve by a factor of 3, and likely by more after optimizing cuts. 1.2. A comment on guaranteed sources For completeness it should be mentioned that the atmosphere is not the only source of cosmic neutrinos guaranteed by the existence of the cosmic-ray beam. Cosmic rays also produce neutrinos in interactions with the sun and the interstellar gas in our galaxy. It takes kilometer-scale detectors to observe the latter, at a rate of 10}100 events per year predicted using the latest EGRET data. The same is true for the EeV neutrinos made in interactions of extragalactic cosmic rays with microwave photons; an area of research dominated by David Schramm and his Chicago coworkers [11]. With the accumulating evidence that there may be no Greisen cuto! in the cosmic-ray spectrum, the observation of this source of neutrinos has became a high priority. If extra-galactic cosmic rays are indeed not truly universal, but con"ned to clusters of galaxies, the rate of Greisen neutrinos will be reduced and, most probably, unobservable [1]. 1.3. Particle physics with neutrino telescopes Neutrino telescopes can do particle physics. This is often illustrated by their capability to detect the annihilation into high-energy neutrinos of neutralinos, the lightest supersymmetric particle which may constitute the cold dark matter. AMANDA and its extensions should have the best discovery potential once WIMP masses exceed 200 GeV [10]. Also, with cosmological sources such as active galaxies and GRBs we will be observing l and l neutrinos over a baseline of 10 Mpc. C I Above 1 PeV these are absorbed by charged-current interactions in the Earth before reaching a detector at the opposite surface. In contrast, the Earth never becomes opaque to l since the O q produced in a charged-current l interaction decays back into l before losing signi"cant energy O O [12]. This penetration of tau neutrinos through the Earth above 10 TeV provides an experimental signature for neutrino oscillations. The appearance of a l component in a pure l beam O C I would be signalled by a #at angular dependence of a source intensity at the highest neutrino energies. Such a #at zenith angle dependence for the farthest sources is a signature for tau neutrino mixing with a sensitivity in *m as low as 10\ eV. In future larger detectors the neutrino production and decay of PeV tau leptons can be observed as a pair of showers separated by the tau lifetime [13]. With neutrino telescopes we will also search for ultrahigh-energy neutrino signatures from topological defects and magnetic monopoles (the present AMANDA limit is already one order of magnitude below the Parker bound for relativistic monopoles [10]); for properties of neutrinos such as mass, magnetic moment, and #avor-oscillations; and for clues to entirely new physical phenomena. The potential of neutrino `telescopesa to do particle physics is evident. In response to the evidence that atmospheric neutrinos oscillate [14], workers in this "eld have been investigating the possibility of studying neutrino mass with the atmospheric neutrinos which, up to now, are used for calibration only. These studies may signi"cantly reshape the architecture of some detectors. We will return to this topic later on.
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2. Large natural Cherenkov detectors The study of GRBs is one more example of a science mission that requires kilometer-scale neutrino detectors. This is not a real surprise. The probability to detect a PeV neutrino is roughly 10\. This is easily computed from the requirement that, in order to be detected, the neutrino has to interact within a distance of the detector which is shorter than the range of the muon it produces [1]. At PeV energy the cosmic-ray #ux is of order 1 per m per year and the probability to detect a neutrino of this energy is of order 10\. A neutrino #ux equal to the cosmic-ray #ux will therefore yield only a few events per day in a kilometer squared detector. At EeV energy the situation is worse. With a cosmic-ray rate of 1 per km per year and a detection probability of 0.1, one can only detect several events per year in a kilometer squared detector provided the neutrino #ux exceeds the proton #ux by 2 orders of magnitude or more. For the neutrino #ux generated by cosmic rays interacting with CMBR photons and for sources like active galaxies and topological defects [15], this is indeed the case. All above estimates are however conservative and the rates should be higher because absorption of protons in the source is expected, and the neutrinos escape the source with a #atter energy spectrum than the protons. In summary, at least where cosmic rays are part of the beam dump, their #ux and the neutrino cross section and muon range de"ne the size of a neutrino telescope. A telescope with kilometer squared e!ective area represents a neutrino detector of kilometer cubed volume. The "rst generation of neutrino telescopes, launched by the bold decision of the DUMAND collaboration over 25 years ago to construct such an instrument, are designed to reach a large telescope area and detection volume for a neutrino threshold of order 10 GeV. This relatively low threshold permits calibration of the novel instrument on the known #ux of atmospheric neutrinos. The architecture is optimized for reconstructing the Cherenkov light front radiated by an up-going, neutrino-induced muon. Only up-going muons made by neutrinos reaching us through the Earth can be successfully detected. The Earth is used as a "lter to screen the fatal background of cosmic-ray muons. This makes neutrino detection possible over the lower hemisphere of the
Fig. 2. The arrival times of the Cherenkov photons in six optical sensors determine the direction of the muon track.
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Table 1 Optical properties of South Pole ice at 1750 m, Lake Baikal water at 1 km, and the range of results from measurements in ocean water below 4 km j"385 nm
(1700 m) AMANDA (m)
BAIKAL (m)
OCEAN (m)
Attenuation Absorption Scattering length
&30 95$5 24$2
&8 8 150}300
25}30 * *
Peak PMT e$ciency. Same for bluer wavelengths. Smaller for bluer wavelengths.
detector. Up-going muons must be identi"ed in a background of down-going, cosmic-ray muons which are more than 10 times more frequent for a depth of 1}2 km. The method is sketched in Fig. 2. The optical requirements of the detector medium are severe. A large absorption length is required because it determines the spacings of the optical sensors and, to a signi"cant extent, the cost of the detector. A long scattering length is needed to preserve the geometry of the Cherenkov pattern. Nature has been kind and o!ered ice and water as adequate natural Cherenkov media. Their optical properties are, in fact, complementary. Water and ice have similar attenuation length, with the role of scattering and absorption reversed; see Table 1. Optics seems, at present, to drive the evolution of ice and water detectors in predictable directions: towards very large telescope area in ice exploiting the large absorption length, and towards lower threshold and good muon track reconstruction in water exploiting the large scattering length.
3. Baikal, ANTARES, nestor and NEMO: northern water Whereas the science is compelling, the real challenge is to develop a reliable, expandable and a!ordable detector technology. With the termination of the pioneering DUMAND experiment, the e!orts in water are, at present, spearheaded by the Baikal experiment [16]. The Baikal Neutrino Telescope is deployed in Lake Baikal, Siberia, 3.6 km from shore at a depth of 1.1 km. An umbrella-like frame holds eight strings, each instrumented with 24 pairs of 37 cm diameter QUASAR photomultiplier tubes (PMT). Two PMTs in a pair are switched in coincidence in order to suppress background from natural radioactivity and bioluminescence. Operating with 144 optical modules since April 1997, the NT-200 detector has been completed in April 1998 with 192 optical modules (OM). The Baikal detector is well understood and the "rst atmospheric neutrinos have been identi"ed. The Baikal site is competitive with deep oceans although the smaller absorption length of Cherenkov light in lake water requires a somewhat denser spacing of the OMs. This does however result in a lower threshold which is a de"nite advantage, for instance for oscillation measurements and WIMP searches. They have shown that their shallow depth of 1 km does not represent
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Fig. 3. Angular distribution of muon tracks in the Lake Baikal experiment after the cuts described in the text.
a serious drawback. By far the most signi"cant advantage is the site with a seasonal ice cover which allows reliable and inexpensive deployment and repair of detector elements. With data taken with 96 OMs only, they have shown that atmospheric muons can be reconstructed with su$cient accuracy to identify atmospheric neutrinos (see Fig. 3). The neutrino events are isolated from the cosmic-ray muon background by imposing a restriction on the chi-square of the Cherenkov "t, and by requiring consistency between the reconstructed trajectory and the spatial locations of the OMs reporting signals. In order to guarantee a minimum lever arm for track "tting, they were forced to reject events with a projection of the most distant channels on the track smaller than 35 m. This does, of course, result in a higher threshold. In the following years, NT-200 will be operated as a neutrino telescope with an e!ective area between 10 and 5;10 m, depending on energy. Presumably too small to detect neutrinos from extraterrestrial sources, NT-200 will serve as the prototype for a larger telescope. For instance, with 2000 OMs, a threshold of 10}20 GeV and an e!ective area of 5;10}10 m, an expanded Baikal telescope would "ll the gap between present underground detectors and planned high-threshold detectors of cubic kilometer size. Its key advantage would be low threshold. The Baikal experiment represents a proof of concept for deep-ocean projects. These have the advantage of larger depth and optically superior water. Their challenge is to "nd reliable and a!ordable solutions to a variety of technological challenges for deploying a deep underwater detector. Several groups are confronting the problem, both NESTOR and ANTARES are developing rather di!erent detector concepts in the Mediterranean. The NESTOR collaboration [17], as part of a series of ongoing technology tests, is testing the umbrella structure which will hold the OMs. They have already deployed two aluminum `#oorsa,
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34 m in diameter, to a depth of 2600 m. Mechanical robustness was demonstrated by towing the structure, submerged below 2000 m, from shore to the site and back. These test should soon be repeated with fully instrumented #oors. The actual detector will consist of a tower of 12 six-legged #oors vertically separated by 30 m. Each #oor contains 14 OMs with four times the photocathode area of the commercial 8 in photomultipliers used by AMANDA and ANTARES. The detector concept is patterned along the Baikal design. The symmetric up/down orientation of the OMs will result in uniform angular acceptance and the relatively close spacings in a low threshold. NESTOR does have the advantage of a superb site, possibly the best in the Mediterranean. The detector can be deployed below 3.5 km relatively close to shore. With the attenuation length peaking at 55 m near 470 nm the site is optically superior to that of all deep-water sites investigated for neutrino astronomy. The ANTARES collaboration [18] is investigating the suitability of a 2400 m deep Mediterranean site o! Toulon, France. The site is a trade-o! between acceptable optical properties of the water and easy access to ocean technology. Their detector concept requires indeed remotely operated vehicles for making underwater connections. First results on water quality are very encouraging with an attenuation length of 40 m at 467 nm and a scattering length exceeding 100 m. Random noise exceeding 50 khz per OM is eliminated by requiring coincidences between neighboring OMs, as is done in the Lake Baikal design. Unlike other water experiments, they will point all photomultipliers sideways or down in order to avoid the e!ects of biofouling. The problem is signi"cant at the Toulon site, but only a!ects the upper pole region of the OM. Relatively weak intensity and long duration bioluminescence results in an acceptable deadtime of the detector. They have demonstrated their capability to deploy and retrieve a string. With the study of atmospheric neutrino oscillations as a top priority, they had planned to deploy in 2001}2003 10 strings instrumented over 400 m with 100 OMs. After study of the underwater currents they decided that they can space the strings by 100 m, and possibly by 60 m. The large photocathode density of the array will allow the study of oscillations in the range 255(¸/E(2550 km GeV\ with neutrinos in the energy range 5(E (50 GeV. More recent J plans call for a di!erent deployment of the 1000 OMs, on 15 strings separated by 80 m. Each string is instrumented with triplets of PMTs spaced by 8}16 m. A new R&D initiative based in Catania, Sicily has been mapping Mediterranean sites, studying mechanical structures and low-power electronics. One must hope that with a successful pioneering neutrino detector of 10\ km in Lake Baikal, a forthcoming 10\ km detector near Toulon, the Mediterranean e!ort will converge on a 10\ km detector at the NESTOR site [19]. For neutrino astronomy to become a viable science several of these, or other, projects will have to succeed besides AMANDA. Astronomy, whether in the optical or in any other wave-band, thrives on a diversity of complementary instruments, not on `a single best instrumenta. When, for instance, the Soviet government tried out the latter method by creating a national large mirror project, it virtually annihilated the "eld.
4. AMANDA: Southern ice Construction of the "rst-generation AMANDA detector was completed in the austral summer 96}97. It consists of 300 optical modules deployed at a depth of 1500}2000 m (see Fig. 4). Here the
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Fig. 4. The Antarctic muon and neutrino detector array (AMANDA).
optical module consists of an 8 in photomultiplier tube and nothing else. It is connected to the surface by a cable which transmits the HV as well as the anode current of a triggered photomultiplier. The instrumented volume and the e!ective telescope area of this instrument matches those of the ultimate DUMAND Octogon detector which, unfortunately, could not be completed.
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As predicted from transparency measurements performed with strings near 1 km depth [20], it was found that ice is bubble-free below 1400 m. Its optical properties were a surprise, nevertheless the bubble-free ice turned out to be an adequate Cherenkov medium. We explain this next. The AMANDA detector was antecedently proposed on the premise that inferior properties of ice as a particle detector with respect to water could be compensated by additional optical modules. The technique was supposed to be a factor 5}10 more cost-e!ective and, therefore, competitive. The design was based on then current information [21]: E
E E
the absorption length at 370 nm, the wavelength where photomultipliers are maximally e$cient, had been measured to be 8 m; the scattering length was unknown; the AMANDA strategy was to use a large number of closely spaced OMs to overcome the short absorption length. Simulations indicated that muon tracks triggering six or more OMs were reconstructed with degree accuracy. Taking data with a simple majority trigger of six OMs or more at 100 Hz resulted in an average e!ective telescope area of 10 m, somewhat smaller for atmospheric neutrinos and signi"cantly larger for the high-energy signals. The reality is that:
E E
the absorption length is 100 m or more, depending on depth [20]; the scattering length is &25 m (preliminary, this number represents an average value which may include the combined e!ects of deep ice and the refrozen ice disturbed by the hot water drilling);
Fig. 5. Angular distribution of muon tracks in AMANDA at three levels of quality cuts. Roughly, N 55, muon track longer than 100 m, and N 56. Details in Ref. [23].
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Fig. 6. Neutrino candidate in AMANDA. The shading (size) of the dots represents time (amplitude) of triggered photomultipliers. The reconstructed muon track moves upward over more than 300 m.
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because of the large absorption length, OM spacings are similar, actually larger, than those of proposed water detectors. Also, in a trigger 20OMs report, not 6. Of these more than six photons are, on average, `not scattereda. A `directa photon is typically required to arrive within 25 ns of the time predicted by the Cherenkov "t. This allows for a small amount of scattering and includes the dispersion of the anode signals over the 2 km cable. In the end, reconstruction is therefore as before, although additional information can be extracted from scattered photons by minimizing a likelihood function which matches their measured and expected time delays.
The most striking demonstration of the quality of natural ice as a Cherenkov detector medium is the observation of atmospheric neutrino candidates with the partially deployed AMANDA detector which consisted of only 80 8 in photomultiplier tubes [22]. The up-going muons are separated from the down-going cosmic-ray background once a su$cient number of direct photons and a minimum track length guarantee adequate reconstruction of the Cherenkov cone (for details, see Ref. [22]). The analysis methods were veri"ed by reconstructing cosmic-ray muon tracks registered in coincidence with a surface air shower array. After completion of the AMANDA detector with 300 OMs, a similar analysis led to a "rst calibration of the instrument using the atmospheric neutrino beam. The separation of signal and background are shown in Fig. 5 after requiring, sequentially, "ve direct photons, a minimum 100 m track length, and six direct photons per event. The details are somewhat more complicated (see Ref. [23]). A neutrino event is shown in Fig. 6. By requiring the long muon track the events are gold-plated, but the threshold high, roughly E 550 GeV. This type of analysis will allow J AMANDA to harvest of order 100 atmospheric neutrinos per year, adequate for calibration. While water detectors exploit large scattering length to achieve sub-degree angular resolution, ice detectors can more readily achieve large telescope area because of the long absorption length of blue light. Currently, the only proven technology to build a neutrino detector in a cost-e!ective way is to look for #ashes of light associated with secondary electrons and muons in enormous amounts of ice. In early 1998 three 2400 m deep strings, with optical modules spread over the lowest kilometer, were deployed. They form part of an intermediate detector, AMANDA II which will be completed in 99}00 with the addition of six more strings. Construction of IceCube will be staged over approximately "ve deployments (possibly 01}02 to 05}06; reducing this time period by improved drilling techniques is under study) of 16 strings per year for a total of &5000 optical modules. A straw-man design for IceCube calls for strings with 60 PMTs in 80 holes spaced laterally by 100 m, or more. Extrapolating from the performance of AMANDA, achieving degree resolution of long muon tracks in ICECUBE has been demonstrated by Monte Carlo. Doing nothing more sophisticated than adjusting the direct hit and track length cuts used in AMANDA, simulation establishes the strawman IceCube design as a kilometer-scale detector over most of the solid angle (see Fig. 7). It should be noted that the nominal resolution per muon track of 2.53 for AMANDA and 13 for icecube is already smaller than the average neutrino-muon angle at the respective energy thresholds of these two detectors. IceCube will o!er great advantages over AMANDA and AMANDA II beyond its larger size: it will have a much higher e$ciency to reconstruct tracks, map showers from electron- and tauneutrinos (events where both the production and decay of a q produced by a l can be identi"ed) O and, most importantly, measure neutrino energy. Initial simulation of a strawman ICECUBE
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Fig. 7. E!ective area of a strawman icecube detector described in the text as a function of zenith angle. We required six or more photons delayed by not more than 75 s and a muon track-length exceeding 150 m. We assumed the expected doubling of the collection area based on the use of larger PMTs with wavelength shifting coating.
design indicate that the direction of showers can be reconstructed to better than 103 in both h,
above 10 TeV. Energy reconstruction is expected to be superior in ice, in part because of the scattering. Energy resolution is critical because, once one establishes that the energy exceeds 100 TeV, there is, in practice, no background in a kilometer-scale detector. Simulations predict a linear response in energy of about 25%. This has to be contrasted with the logarithmic energy resolution of "rst-generation detectors.
Acknowledgements This work was supported in part by the University of Wisconsin Research Committee with funds granted by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG02-95ER40896.
References [1] For a review, see T.K. Gaisser, F. Halzen, T. Stanev, Phys. Rep. 258(3) (1995) 173; R. Gandhi, C. Quigg, M.H. Reno, I. Sarcevic, Astropart. Phys. 5 (1996) 81. [2] F. Halzen, The case for a kilometer-scale neutrino detector, in: R. Kolb, R. Peccei (Eds.), Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Proceedings of Snowmass 94; The case for a kilometer-scale neutrino detector: 1996, in: M. Baldo-Ceolin (Ed.), Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Neutrino Telescopes, Venice, 1996.
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[3] E. Waxman, J.N. Bahcall, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78 (1977) 2292; M. Vietri, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80 (1998) 3690; M. Boettcher, C.D. Dermer, astro-ph/9801027. [4] E. Waxman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75 (1995) 386; M. Milgrom, V. Usov, Astrophys. J. 449 (1995) L37; M. Vietri, Astrophys. J. 453 (1995) 883. [5] F. Halzen, Lectures on neutrino astronomy: theory and experiment, Proceedings of the 1998 TASI Summer School, ed. P. Langacker, World Scienti"c, Singapore, 1999, astro-ph/9810368. [6] M. Roy, H.J. Crawford, A. Trattner, astro-ph/9903231. [7] R.A. Ong, Phys. Rep. 305 (1998) 93; T.C. Weekes, High energy astrophysics, Proceedings of DPF'99, UCLA, 1999, in press. [8] For a review, see T.K. Gaisser, F. Halzen, T. Stanev, Phys. Rep. 258 (1995) 173. See also, P.L. Biermann, P.A. Strittmatter, Astrophys. J. 322 (1987) 643; K. Mannheim, P.L. Biermann, Astron. Astrophys. 221 (1989) 211; F. Stecker, C. Done, M. Salamon, P. Sommers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66 (1991) 2697; erratum Phys. Rev. Lett. 69 (1992) 2738; K. Mannheim, Astron. Astrophys. 269 (1993) 67; M. Sikora, M.C. Begelman, M.J. Rees, Ap. J. Lett. 421 (1994) 153; K. Mannheim, Astropar. Phys. 3 (1995) 295; K. Mannheim, S. Westerho!, H. Meyer, H.H. Fink, Astron. Astrophys. (1996) in press; R.J. Protheroe, Gamma rays and neutrinos from AGN jets, Adelaide preprint ADP-AT-96-4 (astro-ph/9607165), 1996; F. Halzen, E. Zas, Astrophys. J. 488 (1997) 669; J.P. Rachen, P. MeH szaH ros, Phys. Rev. D 58 (1998) 123005 (astro-ph/9802280); F.W. Stecker, M.H. Salamon, Space Sci. Rev. 75 (1996) 341; G.C. Hill, Astropart. Phys. 6 (1997) 215. [9] E. Waxman, J. Bahcall, Phys. Rev. D 59 (1999) 023002. [10] The AMANDA Collaboration, XXVI International Cosmic Ray Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, 1999, distributed on CD-ROM by High-Energy/Astrophysics Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. [11] G. Sigl, D.N. Schramm, P. Bhattacharjee, Astropart. Phys. 2 (1994) 401. [12] F. Halzen, D. Saltzberg, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 (1988) 4305. [13] J.G. Learned, Sandip Pakvasa, Astropart. Phys. 3 (1995) 267. [14] T. Kajita, Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.) 77 (1999) 123. [15] G. Sigl, S. Lee, P. Bhattacharjee, D.N. Schramm, Science 270 (1995) 1977}1980. [16] I.A. Belolaptikov et al., Astropart. Phys. 7 (1997) 263. [17] L. Trascatti, in: A. Bottino, A. di Credico, P. Monacelli (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP 97), Gran Sasso, Italy, 1997; Nucl. Phys. B 70 (Proc. Suppl.) (1998) 442. [18] F. Feinstein, in: A. Bottino, A. di Credico, P. Monacelli (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP 97), Gran Sasso, Italy, 1997; Nucl. Phys. B 70 (Proc. Suppl.) (1998) 445. [19] M. Spiro, Presentation to AASC Committee of the National Academy of Sciences, Atlanta, 1999. [20] The AMANDA collaboration, Science 267 (1995) 1147. [21] S.W. Barwick et al., Proceedings of the 22nd International Cosmic Ray Conference, Vol. 4, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Dublin 1991, p. 658. [22] E. Andres et al., Astropart. Phys. 13 (2000) 1. [23] A. Karle, AMANDA Collab., Observations of atmospheric neutrinos with the AMANDA experiment, Proceedings of the 17th International Workshop on Weak Interactions and Neutrinos (WIN 99), Cape Town, South Africa, 1999, World Scienti"c, Singapore, in press.
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High-energy neutrino astronomy Francis Halzen Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, USA
Abstract With the completion of the "rst-generation Lake Baikal and AMANDA detectors 1998 represents a milestone in neutrino astronomy. Neutrino signals from the Lake Baikal detector bode well for the #urry of R&D activities leading to the deployment of similar instruments in the Mediterranean. The AMANDA telescope announced "rst light, neutrinos actually, and produced results that validate plans for commissioning a kilometer-scale detector in Antarctic ice. Although high-energy neutrino astronomy is a multidisciplinary science, gamma-ray bursts have, with supermassive black holes, become the theoretical focus since recent astronomical observations revealed their potential as cosmic particle accelerators. This spotlight is shared with investigations of the potential of high-energy telescopes to observe oscillating neutrinos. The Superkamiokande results have boosted atmospheric neutrinos from a calibration tool and a background for doing astronomy, to an opportunity to con"rm the evidence for neutrino mass. 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 95.55.Vj; 95.85.Sz; 98.70.Rz
1. Neutrino astronomy: multidisciplinary science Using optical sensors buried in the deep clear ice or deployed in deep ocean and lake waters, neutrino astronomers are attacking major problems in astronomy, astrophysics, cosmic-ray physics and particle physics by commissioning a "rst generation of neutrino telescopes [1]. According to estimates covering a wide range of scienti"c objectives, a neutrino telescope with e!ective telescope area of 1 km is required to address the most fundamental questions [2]. Planning is already underway to instrument a cubic volume of ice, 1 km on the side, as a neutrino detector. This infrastructure provides unique opportunities for yet more interdisciplinary science covering the geosciences and biology.
E-mail address: [email protected] (F. Halzen). 0370-1573/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 7 0 - 1 5 7 3 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 2 9 - 6
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Among the many problems which high-energy neutrino telescopes will address are the origin of cosmic rays, the engines which power active galaxies (AGN), the nature of gamma-ray bursts (GRB), the search for the annihilation products of halo cold dark matter and, possibly, even the structure of the Earth's interior. In burst mode they scan the sky for galactic supernovae and, more speculatively, for the birth of supermassive black holes. Coincident experiments with Earth- and space-based gamma-ray observatories, cosmic-ray telescopes and gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO can be contemplated. With high-energy neutrino astrophysics we are poised to open a new window into space and back in time to the highest-energy processes in the Universe. 1.1. Cosmic particle accelerators: PeV neutrinos Recently, GRBs may have become the best-motivated source for high-energy neutrinos [3]. Although neutrino emission may be less copious and less energetic than anticipated in some models of active galaxies, the predicted #uxes can be calculated in a relatively model-independent way. There is increasing observational support for a model of GRB where an initial event involving neutron stars, black holes or the collapse of highly magnetized rotating stars, deposits a solar mass of energy into a radius of order 100 km. Such a state is opaque to light. The observed gamma-ray display is the result of a relativistic shock which expands the original "reball by a factor 10 in 1 s. Gamma rays arise by synchrotron radiation by relativistic electrons accelerated in the shock, possibly followed by inverse-Compton scattering. It has been suggested [4] that the same cataclysmic events produce the highest energy cosmic rays. This association is reinforced by more than the phenomenal energy and luminosity. Both GRBs and the highest energy cosmic rays are produced in cosmological sources, i.e., distributed throughout the Universe. Also, the average rate EQ K4;10 ergs Mpc\ yr\ at which energy is injected into the Universe as gamma-rays from GRBs is similar to the rate at which energy must be injected in the highest energy cosmic rays in order to produce the observed cosmic-ray #ux beyond the `anklea in the spectrum near 10 eV. The association of cosmic rays with GRBs obviously requires that kinetic energy in the initial shock is converted into the acceleration of protons as well as electrons. It is assumed that the e$ciency with which kinetic energy is converted to accelerated protons is comparable to that for electrons. The production of high-energy neutrinos is inevitably a feature of the "reball model because the protons will photoproduce pions and, therefore, neutrinos in interactions with the gamma-rays in the burst. We have a beam dump con"guration where both the beam and target are constrained by observation: the beam by the observed cosmic-ray spectrum and the photon target by astronomical measurements of the high-energy photon #ux. From an observational point of view, the predicted #ux can be summarized in terms of the main ingredients of the model:
f N (km\ yr\)K25 L J 15%
EQ 4;10 ergs Mpc\ yr\
\ E J , 700 TeV
(1)
i.e., we expect 25 events in a km detector in one year [5]. Here f , estimated to be 15%, is the L e$ciency by which proton energy is converted into the production of pions and EQ is the total
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injection rate into GRBs averaged over volume and time. It is determined by particle physics, as is the energy of the neutrinos which simply re#ects the threshold for photoproduction of pions by the protons on the GRB photons in the shock. Note that GRBs produce a `bursta spectrum of neutrinos. After folding the falling GRB energy spectrum with the increasing detection e$ciency, a burst energy distribution results centered on an average energy of several hundred TeV. Interestingly, this #ux may be observable in "rst-generation detectors. The e!ective area for the detection of 100 TeV neutrinos can approach 0.1 km as a result of the large size of the events. A l of this energy initiates an electromagnetic shower which produces single photoelectron signals C in ice over a radius of 250 m. The e!ective area for a l is larger because the muon has a range of I 10 km (water-equivalent) and produces single photoelectrons as far as 200 m from the track by catastrophic energy losses. Because these spectacular events arrive with the GRB time-stamp of order 1 s precision and with an unmistakable high-energy signature, background rejection is greatly simpli"ed. Although, on average, we expect much less than one event per burst, a relatively near burst would produce multiple events in a single second. The considerable simpli"cation of observing high-energy neutrinos in the burst mode has inspired proposals for highly simpli"ed dedicated detectors [6]. The importance of making GRB observations cannot be overemphasized [3]: E E E
E
E
The observations are a direct probe of the "reball model of GRBs. They may unveil the source of the highest energy cosmic rays. The zenith angle distribution of the GRB neutrinos may reveal the appearance of l in what was O a l , l beam at its origin. The appearance experiment with a baseline of thousands of megaparC I secs has a sensitivity to oscillations of *m as low as 10\ eV, as previously discussed. The relative timing of photons and neutrinos over cosmological distances will allow unrivaled tests of special relativity. The fact that photons and neutrinos should su!er the same time delay travelling through the gravitational "eld of our galaxy will lead to better tests of the weak equivalence principle.
AGN are the other bright gamma-ray sources in the Universe. Their engines must not only be powerful, but also extremely compact because their luminosities are observed to #are by over an order of magnitude over time periods as short as hours [7]. Only sites in the vicinity of black holes which are a billion times more massive than our sun, will do. It is generally believed that the electromagnetic spectrum at all wavelengths, from radio waves to TeV gamma-rays, is produced in the interactions of the accelerated electrons with the magnetic "elds and ambient photons in the galaxy. If protons are accelerated along with electrons to PeV}EeV energy, they will produce high-energy photons by photoproduction of neutral pions on the ubiquitous UV thermal background [8]. Although the relative merits of the electron and proton acceleration are hotly debated, it is more relevant that the issues can be settled experimentally. Proton acceleration turns AGN into sources of high-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos, not just gamma rays. Weakly interacting neutrinos can, unlike high-energy gamma rays and high-energy cosmic rays, reach us from more distant and much more powerful AGN. The opportunities for high-energy neutrino astronomy are wonderfully obvious [1]. Models have mostly focussed on acceleration in the jets beamed perpendicular to the accretion disc. It is assumed that particles are accelerated by Fermi shocks in blobs of matter travelling along the jet with a bulk Lorentz factor of c&10, possibly higher, relative to the observer. In order to
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accommodate bursts lasting a day, or less, in the observer's frame, the size of the blob must be of order cc*t&10\ pc or less. The blobs are actually more like sheets, thinner than the jet's size of roughly 1 pc. The transformation between blob and observer is R "cR and E "1/cE for distances and energies, respectively. Here primes refer to a frame attached to the blob. The observed radiation at all wavelengths is produced by the interaction of the accelerated particles in the blob and the ambient radiation in the AGN. From the observed photon luminosity ¸ we derive the energy density of photons in the shocked A region, ¸ *t 1 ¸ ¸ *t & A . (2) ; " A & A A pR c (cc*t) c*t With high luminosities ¸ emitted over short *t, the large photon density renders the blob opaque A to photons of 10 TeV energy and above unless c is very large. A large c factor, typically larger than 10, is the agent that dilutes the blob until 10 TeV c's fall below the ccPe>e\ threshold in the blob. Similarity with the mechanism which produces GRBs is obvious. Only transparent sources with large boost factors emit TeV photons. They are weak neutrino sources because, even if the TeV photon is of p origin, one can only expect one neutrino per photon, and this translates into observation of only a few events per year in a kilometer-scale detector [9]. A source with the same morphology, but cK1, is completely opaque to high-energy photons and protons. It is a `hiddena source, with reduced or extinct emission of high-energy particles, but abundant neutrino production by protons on the high-density photon target. Nature presumably made AGN with a distribution of boost factors; observed boost factors are actually typically less than 10. While uninteresting for high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, hidden sources have the potential to be powerful neutrino emitters with #uxes exceeding those of TeV gamma-ray sources by several orders of magnitude; a representative range of models is shown in Fig. 1a. Highlighted is the pioneering calculation by Stecker and collaborators who integrated the neutrino #ux from single generic AGN to obtain a di!use #ux from all cosmological AGN. In their model protons are accelerated at a shock in the accretion #ow which is formed where its ram pressure balances the radiation pressure near the central black hole. In Fig. 1b we show the #ux of neutrino-induced muons in the AMANDA detector produced by the di!use #ux. We will describe the details of the instrument further on. Also shown is the background produced by lower energy atmospheric neutrinos. Although energy measurement of the neutrinos is di$cult, the weak correlation between energy of the muon and the number of optical modules reporting in the event (in high-energy events additional photoelectrons are produced by the increased catastrophic energy loss) is su$cient to exclude the excess of high-energy events above 1 TeV predicted in Fig. 1b. Straightforward statistics limits a di!use neutrino #ux in excess of the atmospheric #ux at the level of the Stecker et al. prediction [10]: EU 43.6;10\ (cm s sr)\ GeV . (3) J Models in Fig. 1a exceeding this highlighted #ux are ruled out. They can also obtain a limit on the neutrino #ux from individual AGN from the absence of an excess of neutrino candidates in the AMANDA sky plot [10], e.g. in 85 days and in the direction of a hypothetical source at
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Fig. 1. (a) Predictions for the di!use neutrino background from AGN are confronted with the atmospheric neutrino background. (b) Response of the detector-to-signal and background in (a).
a declination of 653, two events are observed within resolution. From the e!ective area of 10000 m, obtained from Monte Carlo simulation of the detector response for a E\ spectrum after the cuts applied, they obtain a limit U ('1 TeV)43.6;10\ (cm s)\ (4) J at the 90% CL. Since this analysis, (i) better reconstruction software and detector calibration of AMANDA has resulted in a factor 2 improvement in resolution, (ii) they have analyzed only 20%
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of the data, and (iii) with the AMANDA II deployment their e!ective area should improve by a factor of 3, and likely by more after optimizing cuts. 1.2. A comment on guaranteed sources For completeness it should be mentioned that the atmosphere is not the only source of cosmic neutrinos guaranteed by the existence of the cosmic-ray beam. Cosmic rays also produce neutrinos in interactions with the sun and the interstellar gas in our galaxy. It takes kilometer-scale detectors to observe the latter, at a rate of 10}100 events per year predicted using the latest EGRET data. The same is true for the EeV neutrinos made in interactions of extragalactic cosmic rays with microwave photons; an area of research dominated by David Schramm and his Chicago coworkers [11]. With the accumulating evidence that there may be no Greisen cuto! in the cosmic-ray spectrum, the observation of this source of neutrinos has became a high priority. If extra-galactic cosmic rays are indeed not truly universal, but con"ned to clusters of galaxies, the rate of Greisen neutrinos will be reduced and, most probably, unobservable [1]. 1.3. Particle physics with neutrino telescopes Neutrino telescopes can do particle physics. This is often illustrated by their capability to detect the annihilation into high-energy neutrinos of neutralinos, the lightest supersymmetric particle which may constitute the cold dark matter. AMANDA and its extensions should have the best discovery potential once WIMP masses exceed 200 GeV [10]. Also, with cosmological sources such as active galaxies and GRBs we will be observing l and l neutrinos over a baseline of 10 Mpc. C I Above 1 PeV these are absorbed by charged-current interactions in the Earth before reaching a detector at the opposite surface. In contrast, the Earth never becomes opaque to l since the O q produced in a charged-current l interaction decays back into l before losing signi"cant energy O O [12]. This penetration of tau neutrinos through the Earth above 10 TeV provides an experimental signature for neutrino oscillations. The appearance of a l component in a pure l beam O C I would be signalled by a #at angular dependence of a source intensity at the highest neutrino energies. Such a #at zenith angle dependence for the farthest sources is a signature for tau neutrino mixing with a sensitivity in *m as low as 10\ eV. In future larger detectors the neutrino production and decay of PeV tau leptons can be observed as a pair of showers separated by the tau lifetime [13]. With neutrino telescopes we will also search for ultrahigh-energy neutrino signatures from topological defects and magnetic monopoles (the present AMANDA limit is already one order of magnitude below the Parker bound for relativistic monopoles [10]); for properties of neutrinos such as mass, magnetic moment, and #avor-oscillations; and for clues to entirely new physical phenomena. The potential of neutrino `telescopesa to do particle physics is evident. In response to the evidence that atmospheric neutrinos oscillate [14], workers in this "eld have been investigating the possibility of studying neutrino mass with the atmospheric neutrinos which, up to now, are used for calibration only. These studies may signi"cantly reshape the architecture of some detectors. We will return to this topic later on.
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2. Large natural Cherenkov detectors The study of GRBs is one more example of a science mission that requires kilometer-scale neutrino detectors. This is not a real surprise. The probability to detect a PeV neutrino is roughly 10\. This is easily computed from the requirement that, in order to be detected, the neutrino has to interact within a distance of the detector which is shorter than the range of the muon it produces [1]. At PeV energy the cosmic-ray #ux is of order 1 per m per year and the probability to detect a neutrino of this energy is of order 10\. A neutrino #ux equal to the cosmic-ray #ux will therefore yield only a few events per day in a kilometer squared detector. At EeV energy the situation is worse. With a cosmic-ray rate of 1 per km per year and a detection probability of 0.1, one can only detect several events per year in a kilometer squared detector provided the neutrino #ux exceeds the proton #ux by 2 orders of magnitude or more. For the neutrino #ux generated by cosmic rays interacting with CMBR photons and for sources like active galaxies and topological defects [15], this is indeed the case. All above estimates are however conservative and the rates should be higher because absorption of protons in the source is expected, and the neutrinos escape the source with a #atter energy spectrum than the protons. In summary, at least where cosmic rays are part of the beam dump, their #ux and the neutrino cross section and muon range de"ne the size of a neutrino telescope. A telescope with kilometer squared e!ective area represents a neutrino detector of kilometer cubed volume. The "rst generation of neutrino telescopes, launched by the bold decision of the DUMAND collaboration over 25 years ago to construct such an instrument, are designed to reach a large telescope area and detection volume for a neutrino threshold of order 10 GeV. This relatively low threshold permits calibration of the novel instrument on the known #ux of atmospheric neutrinos. The architecture is optimized for reconstructing the Cherenkov light front radiated by an up-going, neutrino-induced muon. Only up-going muons made by neutrinos reaching us through the Earth can be successfully detected. The Earth is used as a "lter to screen the fatal background of cosmic-ray muons. This makes neutrino detection possible over the lower hemisphere of the
Fig. 2. The arrival times of the Cherenkov photons in six optical sensors determine the direction of the muon track.
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Table 1 Optical properties of South Pole ice at 1750 m, Lake Baikal water at 1 km, and the range of results from measurements in ocean water below 4 km j"385 nm
(1700 m) AMANDA (m)
BAIKAL (m)
OCEAN (m)
Attenuation Absorption Scattering length
&30 95$5 24$2
&8 8 150}300
25}30 * *
Peak PMT e$ciency. Same for bluer wavelengths. Smaller for bluer wavelengths.
detector. Up-going muons must be identi"ed in a background of down-going, cosmic-ray muons which are more than 10 times more frequent for a depth of 1}2 km. The method is sketched in Fig. 2. The optical requirements of the detector medium are severe. A large absorption length is required because it determines the spacings of the optical sensors and, to a signi"cant extent, the cost of the detector. A long scattering length is needed to preserve the geometry of the Cherenkov pattern. Nature has been kind and o!ered ice and water as adequate natural Cherenkov media. Their optical properties are, in fact, complementary. Water and ice have similar attenuation length, with the role of scattering and absorption reversed; see Table 1. Optics seems, at present, to drive the evolution of ice and water detectors in predictable directions: towards very large telescope area in ice exploiting the large absorption length, and towards lower threshold and good muon track reconstruction in water exploiting the large scattering length.
3. Baikal, ANTARES, nestor and NEMO: northern water Whereas the science is compelling, the real challenge is to develop a reliable, expandable and a!ordable detector technology. With the termination of the pioneering DUMAND experiment, the e!orts in water are, at present, spearheaded by the Baikal experiment [16]. The Baikal Neutrino Telescope is deployed in Lake Baikal, Siberia, 3.6 km from shore at a depth of 1.1 km. An umbrella-like frame holds eight strings, each instrumented with 24 pairs of 37 cm diameter QUASAR photomultiplier tubes (PMT). Two PMTs in a pair are switched in coincidence in order to suppress background from natural radioactivity and bioluminescence. Operating with 144 optical modules since April 1997, the NT-200 detector has been completed in April 1998 with 192 optical modules (OM). The Baikal detector is well understood and the "rst atmospheric neutrinos have been identi"ed. The Baikal site is competitive with deep oceans although the smaller absorption length of Cherenkov light in lake water requires a somewhat denser spacing of the OMs. This does however result in a lower threshold which is a de"nite advantage, for instance for oscillation measurements and WIMP searches. They have shown that their shallow depth of 1 km does not represent
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Fig. 3. Angular distribution of muon tracks in the Lake Baikal experiment after the cuts described in the text.
a serious drawback. By far the most signi"cant advantage is the site with a seasonal ice cover which allows reliable and inexpensive deployment and repair of detector elements. With data taken with 96 OMs only, they have shown that atmospheric muons can be reconstructed with su$cient accuracy to identify atmospheric neutrinos (see Fig. 3). The neutrino events are isolated from the cosmic-ray muon background by imposing a restriction on the chi-square of the Cherenkov "t, and by requiring consistency between the reconstructed trajectory and the spatial locations of the OMs reporting signals. In order to guarantee a minimum lever arm for track "tting, they were forced to reject events with a projection of the most distant channels on the track smaller than 35 m. This does, of course, result in a higher threshold. In the following years, NT-200 will be operated as a neutrino telescope with an e!ective area between 10 and 5;10 m, depending on energy. Presumably too small to detect neutrinos from extraterrestrial sources, NT-200 will serve as the prototype for a larger telescope. For instance, with 2000 OMs, a threshold of 10}20 GeV and an e!ective area of 5;10}10 m, an expanded Baikal telescope would "ll the gap between present underground detectors and planned high-threshold detectors of cubic kilometer size. Its key advantage would be low threshold. The Baikal experiment represents a proof of concept for deep-ocean projects. These have the advantage of larger depth and optically superior water. Their challenge is to "nd reliable and a!ordable solutions to a variety of technological challenges for deploying a deep underwater detector. Several groups are confronting the problem, both NESTOR and ANTARES are developing rather di!erent detector concepts in the Mediterranean. The NESTOR collaboration [17], as part of a series of ongoing technology tests, is testing the umbrella structure which will hold the OMs. They have already deployed two aluminum `#oorsa,
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34 m in diameter, to a depth of 2600 m. Mechanical robustness was demonstrated by towing the structure, submerged below 2000 m, from shore to the site and back. These test should soon be repeated with fully instrumented #oors. The actual detector will consist of a tower of 12 six-legged #oors vertically separated by 30 m. Each #oor contains 14 OMs with four times the photocathode area of the commercial 8 in photomultipliers used by AMANDA and ANTARES. The detector concept is patterned along the Baikal design. The symmetric up/down orientation of the OMs will result in uniform angular acceptance and the relatively close spacings in a low threshold. NESTOR does have the advantage of a superb site, possibly the best in the Mediterranean. The detector can be deployed below 3.5 km relatively close to shore. With the attenuation length peaking at 55 m near 470 nm the site is optically superior to that of all deep-water sites investigated for neutrino astronomy. The ANTARES collaboration [18] is investigating the suitability of a 2400 m deep Mediterranean site o! Toulon, France. The site is a trade-o! between acceptable optical properties of the water and easy access to ocean technology. Their detector concept requires indeed remotely operated vehicles for making underwater connections. First results on water quality are very encouraging with an attenuation length of 40 m at 467 nm and a scattering length exceeding 100 m. Random noise exceeding 50 khz per OM is eliminated by requiring coincidences between neighboring OMs, as is done in the Lake Baikal design. Unlike other water experiments, they will point all photomultipliers sideways or down in order to avoid the e!ects of biofouling. The problem is signi"cant at the Toulon site, but only a!ects the upper pole region of the OM. Relatively weak intensity and long duration bioluminescence results in an acceptable deadtime of the detector. They have demonstrated their capability to deploy and retrieve a string. With the study of atmospheric neutrino oscillations as a top priority, they had planned to deploy in 2001}2003 10 strings instrumented over 400 m with 100 OMs. After study of the underwater currents they decided that they can space the strings by 100 m, and possibly by 60 m. The large photocathode density of the array will allow the study of oscillations in the range 255(¸/E(2550 km GeV\ with neutrinos in the energy range 5(E (50 GeV. More recent J plans call for a di!erent deployment of the 1000 OMs, on 15 strings separated by 80 m. Each string is instrumented with triplets of PMTs spaced by 8}16 m. A new R&D initiative based in Catania, Sicily has been mapping Mediterranean sites, studying mechanical structures and low-power electronics. One must hope that with a successful pioneering neutrino detector of 10\ km in Lake Baikal, a forthcoming 10\ km detector near Toulon, the Mediterranean e!ort will converge on a 10\ km detector at the NESTOR site [19]. For neutrino astronomy to become a viable science several of these, or other, projects will have to succeed besides AMANDA. Astronomy, whether in the optical or in any other wave-band, thrives on a diversity of complementary instruments, not on `a single best instrumenta. When, for instance, the Soviet government tried out the latter method by creating a national large mirror project, it virtually annihilated the "eld.
4. AMANDA: Southern ice Construction of the "rst-generation AMANDA detector was completed in the austral summer 96}97. It consists of 300 optical modules deployed at a depth of 1500}2000 m (see Fig. 4). Here the
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Fig. 4. The Antarctic muon and neutrino detector array (AMANDA).
optical module consists of an 8 in photomultiplier tube and nothing else. It is connected to the surface by a cable which transmits the HV as well as the anode current of a triggered photomultiplier. The instrumented volume and the e!ective telescope area of this instrument matches those of the ultimate DUMAND Octogon detector which, unfortunately, could not be completed.
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As predicted from transparency measurements performed with strings near 1 km depth [20], it was found that ice is bubble-free below 1400 m. Its optical properties were a surprise, nevertheless the bubble-free ice turned out to be an adequate Cherenkov medium. We explain this next. The AMANDA detector was antecedently proposed on the premise that inferior properties of ice as a particle detector with respect to water could be compensated by additional optical modules. The technique was supposed to be a factor 5}10 more cost-e!ective and, therefore, competitive. The design was based on then current information [21]: E
E E
the absorption length at 370 nm, the wavelength where photomultipliers are maximally e$cient, had been measured to be 8 m; the scattering length was unknown; the AMANDA strategy was to use a large number of closely spaced OMs to overcome the short absorption length. Simulations indicated that muon tracks triggering six or more OMs were reconstructed with degree accuracy. Taking data with a simple majority trigger of six OMs or more at 100 Hz resulted in an average e!ective telescope area of 10 m, somewhat smaller for atmospheric neutrinos and signi"cantly larger for the high-energy signals. The reality is that:
E E
the absorption length is 100 m or more, depending on depth [20]; the scattering length is &25 m (preliminary, this number represents an average value which may include the combined e!ects of deep ice and the refrozen ice disturbed by the hot water drilling);
Fig. 5. Angular distribution of muon tracks in AMANDA at three levels of quality cuts. Roughly, N 55, muon track longer than 100 m, and N 56. Details in Ref. [23].
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Fig. 6. Neutrino candidate in AMANDA. The shading (size) of the dots represents time (amplitude) of triggered photomultipliers. The reconstructed muon track moves upward over more than 300 m.
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because of the large absorption length, OM spacings are similar, actually larger, than those of proposed water detectors. Also, in a trigger 20OMs report, not 6. Of these more than six photons are, on average, `not scattereda. A `directa photon is typically required to arrive within 25 ns of the time predicted by the Cherenkov "t. This allows for a small amount of scattering and includes the dispersion of the anode signals over the 2 km cable. In the end, reconstruction is therefore as before, although additional information can be extracted from scattered photons by minimizing a likelihood function which matches their measured and expected time delays.
The most striking demonstration of the quality of natural ice as a Cherenkov detector medium is the observation of atmospheric neutrino candidates with the partially deployed AMANDA detector which consisted of only 80 8 in photomultiplier tubes [22]. The up-going muons are separated from the down-going cosmic-ray background once a su$cient number of direct photons and a minimum track length guarantee adequate reconstruction of the Cherenkov cone (for details, see Ref. [22]). The analysis methods were veri"ed by reconstructing cosmic-ray muon tracks registered in coincidence with a surface air shower array. After completion of the AMANDA detector with 300 OMs, a similar analysis led to a "rst calibration of the instrument using the atmospheric neutrino beam. The separation of signal and background are shown in Fig. 5 after requiring, sequentially, "ve direct photons, a minimum 100 m track length, and six direct photons per event. The details are somewhat more complicated (see Ref. [23]). A neutrino event is shown in Fig. 6. By requiring the long muon track the events are gold-plated, but the threshold high, roughly E 550 GeV. This type of analysis will allow J AMANDA to harvest of order 100 atmospheric neutrinos per year, adequate for calibration. While water detectors exploit large scattering length to achieve sub-degree angular resolution, ice detectors can more readily achieve large telescope area because of the long absorption length of blue light. Currently, the only proven technology to build a neutrino detector in a cost-e!ective way is to look for #ashes of light associated with secondary electrons and muons in enormous amounts of ice. In early 1998 three 2400 m deep strings, with optical modules spread over the lowest kilometer, were deployed. They form part of an intermediate detector, AMANDA II which will be completed in 99}00 with the addition of six more strings. Construction of IceCube will be staged over approximately "ve deployments (possibly 01}02 to 05}06; reducing this time period by improved drilling techniques is under study) of 16 strings per year for a total of &5000 optical modules. A straw-man design for IceCube calls for strings with 60 PMTs in 80 holes spaced laterally by 100 m, or more. Extrapolating from the performance of AMANDA, achieving degree resolution of long muon tracks in ICECUBE has been demonstrated by Monte Carlo. Doing nothing more sophisticated than adjusting the direct hit and track length cuts used in AMANDA, simulation establishes the strawman IceCube design as a kilometer-scale detector over most of the solid angle (see Fig. 7). It should be noted that the nominal resolution per muon track of 2.53 for AMANDA and 13 for icecube is already smaller than the average neutrino-muon angle at the respective energy thresholds of these two detectors. IceCube will o!er great advantages over AMANDA and AMANDA II beyond its larger size: it will have a much higher e$ciency to reconstruct tracks, map showers from electron- and tauneutrinos (events where both the production and decay of a q produced by a l can be identi"ed) O and, most importantly, measure neutrino energy. Initial simulation of a strawman ICECUBE
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Fig. 7. E!ective area of a strawman icecube detector described in the text as a function of zenith angle. We required six or more photons delayed by not more than 75 s and a muon track-length exceeding 150 m. We assumed the expected doubling of the collection area based on the use of larger PMTs with wavelength shifting coating.
design indicate that the direction of showers can be reconstructed to better than 103 in both h,
above 10 TeV. Energy reconstruction is expected to be superior in ice, in part because of the scattering. Energy resolution is critical because, once one establishes that the energy exceeds 100 TeV, there is, in practice, no background in a kilometer-scale detector. Simulations predict a linear response in energy of about 25%. This has to be contrasted with the logarithmic energy resolution of "rst-generation detectors.
Acknowledgements This work was supported in part by the University of Wisconsin Research Committee with funds granted by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG02-95ER40896.
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