Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

A novel microstructure-based model to explain the IceCube ice anisotropy

  • The IceCube Collaboration
  • Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Loyola University Chicago
  • German Electron Synchrotron
  • University of Canterbury
  • Université libre de Bruxelles
  • University of Copenhagen
  • Oskar Klein Centre
  • University of Geneva
  • Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
  • University of Delaware
  • Harvard University
  • Marquette University
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
  • University of California at Irvine
  • University of California at Berkeley
  • Ohio State University
  • University of Wuppertal
  • Ruhr University Bochum
  • Technical University of Munich
  • University of Rochester
  • University of Maryland, College Park
  • University of Padua
  • University of Kansas
  • Moscow Engineering Physics Institute
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • RWTH Aachen University
  • Uppsala University

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory instruments about 1 km3 of deep, glacial ice at the geographic South Pole using 5160 photomultipliers to detect Cherenkov light of charged relativistic particles. Most of IceCube’s science goals rely heavily on an ever more precise understanding of the optical properties of the instrumented ice. A curious light propagation effect observed by the experiment is an anisotropic attenuation, which is aligned with the local flow of the ice. Having recently identified curved photon trajectories resulting from asymmetric light diffusion in the birefringent polycrystalline microstructure of the ice as the most likely underlying cause of this effect, work is now ongoing to optimize the model parameters (effectively deducing the average crystal size and shape in the detector). We present the parametrization of the birefringence effect in our photon propagation simulation, the fitting procedures and results as well as the impact of the new ice model on data-MC agreement.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1119
JournalProceedings of Science
Volume395
StatePublished - Mar 18 2022
Event37th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2021 - Virtual, Berlin, Germany
Duration: Jul 12 2021Jul 23 2021

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A novel microstructure-based model to explain the IceCube ice anisotropy'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this