31 August 2015

Evidence for astrophysical neutrinos published - "the birth of neutrino astronomy".

An article in Physical Review Letters (arxiv.org/abs/1507.04005), the IceCube collaboration presents compelling evidence for a flux of astrophysical neutrinos.

In a data sample of approximately 35,000 muon neutrinos recorded during between May 2010 and May 2012, most of the neutrinos are produced by cosmic ray interactions in the Earth's atmosphere. However, the highest energy neutrinos are inconsistent with the hypothesis of solely terrestrial origin at 3.7 sigma significance.

These neutrinos can, however, be explained by an astrophysical flux of neutrinos from violent events outside our solar system. This observation marks *the birth of neutrino astronomy*.

Read more in a popular article  (in Danish):

http://videnskab.dk/miljo-naturvidenskab/gennembrud-pa-sydpolen-nu-kan-neutrinoer-bruges-til-astronomi

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