Catching neutrinos with ice at the end of the world

Special Department of Physics Seminar
Dr. Tianlu Yuan
Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center (WIPAC) and the University of Wisconsin Madison

Abstract: Neutrinos are weakly interacting particles, making them uniquely difficult to detect and at the same time surprisingly useful probes of fundamental physics at the largest and smallest scales. To detect astrophysical neutrinos, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory transforms a cubic-kilometer of ice at the South Pole into a weak-force telescope. Since its completion a decade ago, IceCube has discovered the existence of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, found the first evidence of the Glashow resonance, probed neutrino interactions at the highest energy scales and is beginning to unveil individual sources of neutrinos from outer space. In this talk, I will highlight these results, discuss the technical challenges involved, and provide an outlook for the future with IceCube-Gen2.