A new way of looing at the sky: Neutrino telescopes

Authors

  • Juan Zúñiga Román University of Valencia (Spain).
  • Juan de Dios Zornoza Gómez Institute of Corpuscular Physics (CSIC-UV) in Valencia (Spain).
  • Juan José Hernández Rey Institute of Corpuscular Physics (CSIC-UV) in Valencia (Spain).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.7.8504

Keywords:

neutrino astronomy, neutrino telescopes, astroparticle physics, IceCube, KM3NeT

Abstract

Neutrinos are weakly-interacting neutral particles, which makes them powerful sources of information about the most energetic processes in the universe, such as the origin of ultra-energetic cosmic rays or gamma-ray bursts. However, a price must be paid in order to detect them: gargantuan detectors at the bottom of the sea or under the Antarctic ice are required. The detection of the first high-energy cosmic neutrinos in 2013 by the IceCube observatory represented the start of socalled neutrino astronomy, a new way of observing the universe, which can play a key role in future discoveries. In this article, we describe how neutrino telescopes work, as well as the different initial configurations that made this new twenty-first century astronomy possible.

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Author Biographies

Juan Zúñiga Román, University of Valencia (Spain).

Tenured professor in the Department of Atomic, Molecular, and Nuclear Physics at the University of Valencia (Spain) and member of the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (CSIC-UV). He developed his research in the field of high-energy physics, first in CERN’s DELPHI and ATLAS experiments and, later, at the ANTARES and KM3NeT neutrino telescopes, where he is a research team member. Currently, he is the director of the Master’s Degree in Advanced Physics of the University of Valencia.

Juan de Dios Zornoza Gómez, Institute of Corpuscular Physics (CSIC-UV) in Valencia (Spain).

Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (CSIC-UV) in Valencia (Spain). He developed his scientific work in the field of neutrino astronomy, as a member of the ANTARES, AMANDA/IceCube (as a Marie Curie fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), and KM3NeT projects. His current work focuses on the search for dark matter and the sources of astrophysical neutrinos. He currently coordinates the Spanish groups involved in ANTARES and KM3NeT.

Juan José Hernández Rey, Institute of Corpuscular Physics (CSIC-UV) in Valencia (Spain).

Professor of research at the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (CSIC-UV) in Valencia (Spain). He developed his scientific career in several experiments related to CERN’s SPS and LEP particle accelerators and Fermilab’s Tevatron (USA). He was the deputy speaker of the ANTARES collaboration, which built and currently operates the Mediterranean neutrino telescope and he also works with the KM3NeT neutrino telescope. He is currently the director of the Institute of Corpuscular Physics and the scientific director of the project for the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence at the same institute.

References

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Published

2017-06-20

How to Cite

Zúñiga Román, J., Zornoza Gómez, J. de D., & Hernández Rey, J. J. (2017). A new way of looing at the sky: Neutrino telescopes. Metode Science Studies Journal, (7), 181–189. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.7.8504
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Issue

Unravelling science: Pulling the thread of knowledge (2017)

Section

Violent universe. High-energy astrophysics and cosmology in the twenty-first century

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