Neutrinos: cool, cold, coldest

 

In all of particle physics, neutrinos are some of the most ghostly particles we’ve detected. While the story of their discovery was pretty cool in itself, some modern experiments are even cooler. 

 

The IceCube experiment, located at the geographic South Pole, was originally designed to collect astro-particle data, especially by looking for neutrino point sources as potential sources of the highest energy cosmic rays. But because of its immense fiducial volume, IceCube can collect high-statistic neutrino data, and thus measure oscillation parameters with precision that rivals dedicated oscillation experiments. 

 

The CUORE experiment examines majorana nature of neutrinos by looking for neutrinoless double beta decay in the coldest cubic meter in the Universe, at Gran Sasso National Lab in Italy. It recently completed its assembly and installation process. I will show some of its initial results and background validation, just released this summer.