The Telescope in the Ice
Page 47
The following people sat generously for interviews: Olga Botner, Adam Bouchta, Jeff Cherwinka, the late Dave Cline, Farshid Feyzi, Tom Gaisser, Azriel Goldschmidt, Kael Hanson, the late Per Olof Hulth, Aya Ishihara, Claudio Kopper, John Lynch, Dave Nygren, Bob Paulos, Jerry Przybylski, Greg Sullivan, Serap Tilav, Nathan Whitehorn, John Wiley, Ralf Wischnewski, and Kurt Woschnagg. Carlos le los Heros popped up several times in his amiable way with nice tidbits about the AMANDA days. When Ty DeYoung finally opened up (it took about thirteen years), he provided just the sort of wise and sober insight I expected from him. I also benefited from helpful exchanges with Steve Barwick, Kara Hoffman, Lutz Koepke, Jerry Marty, Naoko Kurahashi Neilson, Sandip Pakvasa, Elisa Resconi, Leo Resvanis, George Smoot, Todor Stanev, Eli Waxman, Trevor Weekes, and Christopher Wiebusch.
I think I’d like to thank David Dobbs, a fine writer and fellow Vermonter, for getting me into this mess. About seven years ago, I mentioned a few book ideas to him and he pounced on this one, prompting me to focus on it for real. I know I’d like to thank Doug Linnel for his excellent line drawings, John Lehet for help with all things internet, Chin Woon Ping for getting me books from the Dartmouth libraries (and for general camaraderie), Evelyn Malkus and Bob Stokstad for help with photographs, and Troy Reeves of the Oral History Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for providing me with their long interview of Francis Halzen.
I am indebted to Jason Newman, Mike Tennican, and David Zahn for reading the first bumpy draft of the manuscript—and to Jason for reading the second draft, too! It was incredibly interesting to watch it bounce off three very different minds; they all had an effect on the final product. I hope I have implemented Mike’s deeply considered ideas to his satisfaction. And Jason is probably the most generous reader I have ever encountered in the sense of appreciating everything and reading between the lines. His perception, transmitted during two delightful evenings at the Pine bar, has worked its way into the book’s DNA. Here’s to more such evenings, ranging to other subjects.
I am also indebted to the participating institutions in AMANDA and IceCube, particularly DESY Zeuthen; Uppsala University; the University of California, Berkeley; and especially the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They have defrayed the cost of conferences and collaboration meetings and occasionally even travel and lodging. Madison also hired me for a writing project that doubled as book research.
Many thanks to the people at St. Martin’s Press for agreeing to publish this book, and especially to senior production editor Donna Cherry for her professionalism and grace under pressure and assistant editor Laura Apperson for her good-natured help with the photographs.
Finally, my deepest gratitude to Jane Gelfman, my agent, for believing in me and this book, for working far too hard on our behalves, and for becoming a real friend. Getting to know her may be the best thing about this project for me. I have met very few people in my life with her class and her wisdom.
Acronyms
A3RI
Antarctic Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Institute (in Madison)
AMANDA
Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array
AMANDA-A
The first, shallow AMANDA detector, deployed over the 1993–94 Antarctic season
AMANDA-B
The second, deeper AMANDA detector
AMANDA-B4
The first, four-string iteration of AMANDA-B, deployed over the 1995–96 Antarctic season
AMANDA-B10
The second, ten-string iteration of AMANDA-B, deployed over the 1996–97 Antarctic season
ATHENE
ATmospheric High Energy Neutrino Experiment
CCFMR
The Cline, Camerini, Fry, March, Reeder research group at the University of Wisconsin
CERN
Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Organization for Nuclear Research), the European high-energy physics laboratory on the outskirts of Geneva
DeepCore
A small infill array in IceCube for detecting lower-energy neutrinos
DOE
United States Department of Energy
DUMAND
Deep Underwater Muon And Neutrino Detector
GASP
Gamma-ray Astronomy at the South Pole
GISP2
Second Greenland Ice Sheet Project
GRB
Gamma ray burst
HEP
High-energy physics
HPW
Harvard-Purdue-Wisconsin experiment
IceTop
A two-dimensional surface array on the surface of the Ice above IceCube
ICRC
International Cosmic Ray Conference
IGY
International Geophysical Year
IMB
Irvine-Michigan-Brookhaven experiment
JULIA
Joint Underwater Laboratory and Institute for Astroparticlephysics
Kamiokande
Kamioka Nucleon Decay Experiment
LBL
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
LIGO
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
LHC
Large Hadron Collider at CERN
NESTOR
NEutrinos from Supernovae and TeV sources, Ocean Range
NSF
National Science Foundation
PI
Principal investigator
PICO
Polar Ice Coring Office
PSL
Physical Sciences Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin
RAMAND
Radio Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector
RHIC
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
RICE
Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment
SAGENAP
Scientific Assessment Group for Experiments in Non-Accelerator Physics
SNO
Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
SPASE
South Pole Air Shower Experiment
SSEC
Space Science and Engineering Center (in Madison)
SSC
Superconducting Super Collider
Super-K
Super-Kamiokande
TOS
Tower Operations Structure (for IceCube)
UNCLE
Undersea Cosmic Lepton Experiment
UNDINE
UNderwater Detection of Interstellar Neutrino Emission
UNICORN
UNderwater Interstellar Cosmic-Ray Neutrinos
UW
University of Wisconsin
VULCAN
Very Un-Likely Cherenkov Array Name
Timeline
1911
Roald Amundsen and his men leave the first footprints at the South Pole.
1912
In a hydrogen balloon above Germany, Victor Hess detects the first cosmic rays.
1927
Charles Drummond Ellis and Wilhelm Orthmann demonstrate that the energy spectrum in radioactive beta decay is continuous. This seems to indicate that energy is lost in the decay process.
1929
Several experiments reveal a conundrum related to the spin of the nitrogen nucleus.
1930
Wolfgang Pauli proposes a possible solution to both of these conundrums by hypothesizing the existence of a new particle, the neutrino.
1932
James Chadwick discovers the neutron, which explains the nitrogen anomaly.
Carl Anderson discovers the first antiparticle, the positron, in a shower of cosmic rays.
1933
Enrico Fermi develops a successful quantum theory for beta decay, which suggests that the neutrino is responsible for the “missing” energy.
1935
James Chadwick wins Nobel Prize in Physics for discovery of the neutron.
Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie win chemistry Nobel for “their synthesis of new radioactive elements.”
19
36
Victor Hess and Carl Anderson share the Nobel Prize in Physics.
1937
Anderson discovers the muon, again in a shower of cosmic rays.
Ettore Majorana suggests that the neutrino might be its own antiparticle.
1938
Christmas Eve: based on experimental results she has seen in a letter from her colleague, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner realizes that Hahn has “split the atom.” Meitner’s nephew, Otto Frisch, later names the process “fission.”
1939
Hans Bethe produces a general theory of energy production in stars, which predicts that the Sun should emit neutrinos.
1942
Enrico Fermi engineers the first manmade nuclear chain reaction.
1944
Otto Hahn receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of fission.
1945
May: Bruno Pontecorvo proposes a chemical method for detecting neutrinos. Over the next five years, he makes many contributions to the understanding of the neutrino, including the idea that it may come in different flavors.
July 16: Trinity, the first manmade nuclear explosion.
1947
Pion discovered in photographic emulsions high in the Pyrenees and Andes.
1950
Bruno Pontecorvo defects to the Soviet Union.
1951
Ray Davis begins building the first of many neutrino detectors based on Pontecorvo’s chemical detection method.
mid-50s
The first high-energy particle accelerators come on line.
1956
Fred Reines and Clyde Cowan detect the neutrino at the Savannah River nuclear plant in South Carolina.
Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang Lee suggest that the weak nuclear force, intimately related to the neutrino, may violate parity, the law of mirror symmetry.
1957
Chien-Shiung Wu proves experimentally that the weak force does violate parity. Two other experiments quickly follow suit.
Lee and Yang win physics Nobel.
Bruno Pontecorvo proposes neutrino oscillation.
1958
Moiseĭ Markov and his student Igor Zheleznykh propose a concept for a neutrino telescope to be placed in “an underground lake or deep in the ocean.”
Wolfgang Pauli dies.
1960
Kenneth Greisen proposes an idea for a detector similar to Markov’s to be “located in a mine far underground.”
1962
Leon Lederman, Mel Schwartz, and Jack Steinberger detect the first muon neutrinos.
1964
Theorist John Bahcall joins Ray Davis in proposing a large detector based on Pontecorvo’s method in order to study neutrinos emitted by the Sun.
1965
Davis starts building a solar neutrino detector in the Homestake Gold Mine in South Dakota.
Separate groups led by Goku Menon and Fred Reines detect the first naturally occurring (atmospheric) neutrinos in gold mines in India and South Africa.
1967
Ray Davis observes solar neutrinos at Homestake, but only one-third as many as Bahcall has predicted. This discrepancy becomes known as “the solar neutrino problem.”
1968
John Learned defends his doctoral thesis, describing some of the earliest “fishing for muons” in a natural body of water: preliminary research for a neutrino telescope in the manner of Markov.
Learned joins the Cline, Camerini, Fry, March, Reeder group at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
1971
At a conference in the French Alps, Vernon Barger offers Francis Halzen a six-month position at UW-Madison. Halzen moves to Wisconsin in the fall.
1973
DUMAND committee, comprising U.S., Soviet, Japanese, and European scientists, founded at an International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC) in Denver.
1975
Geodesic dome erected at South Pole station.
Martin Perl and colleagues discover the tau lepton.
mid-70s
With experimental confirmation of the existence of quarks, the standard model of particle physics is put in place.
1976
Seminal DUMAND workshop in Honolulu provides the basis for virtually every Greisen- or Markov-type instrument that will be built for the next four decades, including AMANDA and IceCube.
1977
Francis Halzen promoted to full professor at Madison.
1977–78 Antarctic Season
Bruce Koci makes his first trip to Antarctica to drill on the Ross Ice Shelf.
1978 or 1979
Bob Morse joins the HPW experiment in Utah, a neutrino detector in the manner of Greisen.
1979
Construction starts on the IMB detector in Ohio, another Greisen-type detector.
Ross Ice Shelf Project morphs into the Polar Ice Coring Office (PICO).
Soviets invade Afghanistan.
1980
DUMAND funded. Hawaii DUMAND center established. John Learned becomes technical director. This is the first attempt to build a true neutrino telescope in the manner of Markov.
1981
President Ronald Reagan ends Soviet participation in DUMAND. Soviet scientists begin working on a neutrino telescope in Lake Baikal, Siberia.
1982
Construction begins on Kamiokande, a Greisen-style instrument in the Japanese Alps.
1983
A group led by Carlo Rubbia detects the W and Z intermediate vector bosons, the carriers of the weak force, at CERN. Accelerator physics enters “the desert.”
Groups in England and Germany announce the detection of very high-energy gamma rays from Cygnus X-3. Although this result turns out to be false, it prompts a small migration of high-energy physicists from the accelerators back to cosmic rays.
1987
February: A thirteen-second flash of neutrinos from Supernova 1987a passes through IMB, Kamiokande, and a Russian detector in the Caucasus.
SPASE (South Pole Air Shower Experiment) begins.
On a visit to the University of Kansas, Francis Halzen learns about a Russian neutrino experiment in Antarctica and conceives of “DUMAND on Ice.” He gets in touch with John Learned.
1988
Learned sends a letter of intent for DUMAND on Ice to John Lynch at NSF. Lynch responds in the negative.
First International Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes in Venice.
Lederman, Schwartz, and Steinberger share Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the muon neutrino.
1989
John Wiley becomes dean of UW-Madison grad school.
Conference on Astrophysics in Antarctica at Bartol Institute in Delaware. Many future AMANDA and IceCube scientists participate.
November: Berlin Wall falls.
1989–90 Antarctic Season
Bob Morse travels to South Pole to install GASP: Gamma Astronomy at South Pole.
Doug Lowder and Andrew Westphal caught in Antarctica attempting an unauthorized feasibility study for DUMAND on Ice.
1990
January: At the 21st ICRC in Adelaide, Francis Halzen and Bob Morse of UW-Madison, Buford Price of Berkeley, and Steve Barwick of UC Irvine agree to form the AMANDA collaboration.
August: First “ice fishing for muons.” The AMANDA collaboration deploys a test string on the summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet with the help of driller Bruce Koci.
October: German unification.
1991–92 Antarctic Season
First AMANDA drilling campaign is “a learning experience”: they lose the drill in the ice.
1992
AMANDA receives its first round of funding.
Swedish groups from Stockholm and Uppsala universities join AMANDA.
1993
Baikal collaboration deploys its third string in the lake and thus wins the “3-string race” in neutrino astronomy.
1993–94 Antarctic Season
AMANDA collaboration deploys AMANDA-A, four strings in shallow, bubbly ice
.
1994
David Nygren of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory conceives of a digital optical module (DOM) for use in Markov-type neutrino telescopes.
1995
A group from Zeuthen, in the former East Germany that is already collaborating on Baikal, also joins AMANDA.
Fred Reines and Martin Perl share Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the neutrino and tau lepton, respectively.
1995–96 Antarctic Season
AMANDA-B4, comprising four strings, deployed in deep, clear ice.
1996
Baikal collaboration announces the detection of three “gold-plated” neutrinos, the first ever by a neutrino telescope. This is a great step forward, but it is not astronomy, since the neutrinos probably came from Earth’s atmosphere.
After sixteen years of mishaps, DUMAND is terminated.
Dave Nygren joins AMANDA.
1996–97 Antarctic Season
AMANDA-B10, ten strings, deployed.
Jerry Przybylski deploys two prototype DOMs on one of these strings.