The Telescope in the Ice

by Mark Bowen

  Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton University)

  Institute for Nuclear Research of the Soviet Academy of Sciences

  International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC)

  International Geophysical Year (IGY)

  Irvine-Michigan-Brookhaven experiment (IMB)

  Ishihara, Aya

  Jackson, Shannon

  Jacobsen, John

  Joint Underwater Laboratory and Institute for Astroparticlephysics (JULIA)

  Joliot-Curie, Irène and Frédéric

  Jones, Albert

  Jung, Carl

  Kajita, Takaaki

  Kamb, Barclay

  Kamioka Nucleon Decay Experiment (Kamiokande)

  Karle, Albrecht

  Kelley, John (member of IceCube collaboration)

  Kelley, John (director of PICO), 144Kepler, Johannes

  Klein, Spencer

  Kleinfelder, Stuart

  Km3

  Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation

  Koci, Bruce

  and AMANDA

  background and education

  and IceCube

  Koepke, Lutz

  Kolar Gold Fields (India)

  Kopper, Claudio

  Koshiba, Masatoshi

  Kotzer, Peter

  Krasberg, Mark

  Kuzmin, Vadim

  Landau, Lev

  Lane, Neal

  Lang, Kenneth

  Large Hadron Collider (LHC). See under accelerators

  Large Magellanic Cloud

  Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)

  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL)

  Learned, John

  and AMANDA

  and DUMAND

  and Supernova 1987a

  youth and early career

  Lederman, Leon

  Lee, Tsung-Dao

  Lemaître, Georges

  leptons

  Lewis, Martin

  Lidström, Sven

  Lightbody, Jack

  limit-setting

  Lipenkov, Vladimir

  Lockheed LC-130 Hercules transport plane (“Herc”)

  Loh, Gene

  Lorenz, Eckart

  Lovell, Bernard

  Lowder, Doug

  LSD experiment

  Ludvig, Jozsef

  Lynch, John

  μ-meson. See also muons

  Macovicka, Tim

  magnetic monopoles

  Majorana, Ettore

  Manhattan Project

  Marburger, John

  March, Bob

  Markov, Moiseĭ

  Martin, Alan

  Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory (MAPO)

  Mather, George

  McCarthy, Senator Joseph

  McDonald, Arthur

  McMurdo Station

  McNaught, Rob

  McParland, Chuck

  Meagher, Kevin

  Meitner, Lise

  Menon, M.G.K.

  Milky Way

  Millar, Terry

  Miller, Tim

  Miyake, Saburo

  Mock, Pat

  Monte Carlo (computer model)

  Moon

  Morse, Bob

  and AMANDA

  background

  and IceCube

  Mosley-Thompson, Ellen

  muons

  atmospheric

  as cosmic rays

  discovery of

  explanation of

  “fishing” for

  lifetime

  and neutrino astronomy

  properties of

  tracks

  reconstruction of

  Mussolini, Benito

  mutual assured destruction (MAD)

  National Academy of Sciences

  National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

  National Science Foundation (NSF)

  Nature

  Nazism

  Neddermeyer, Seth

  Neilson, Naoko Kurahashi

  neutrino astronomy, field of

  and AMANDA

  and Baikal

  and CCFMR

  and cosmic ray physics

  and cosmology

  and DUMAND

  and DUMAND Honolulu workshop (September 1976)

  and Fermi’s theory of beta decay

  first conceived

  first conference dedicated to. See Venice meeting

  first experiment in

  first gold-plated events

  first three-string Cherenkov detector

  and Halzen, Francis

  and IceCube

  and Learned, John

  and Nygren, David

  and Km3 meeting (Arcadia, California, 1974)

  and particle physics

  and Reines, Fred

  Russian leaders in

  neutrinos

  as astronomical messenger

  atmospheric

  Bert and Ernie

  Big Bird

  and dark matter (WIMPs)

  discovery of

  electron neutrinos

  extraterrestrial (astrophysical or cosmic). See also under IceCube

  and Fermi’s theory of beta decay

  flavor

  GZK. See under IceCube

  handedness of

  Majorana conjecture about

  mass of. See also neutrinos: oscillation of

  muon neutrinos

  naming of

  neutral current interactions of

  and Nobel Prize

  and nuclear fission

  oscillation of

  and parity

  penetrating power of

  and physics beyond the standard model

  and pions

  point sources of (neutrino stars). See also under IceCube

  solar neutrinos

  spin of

  sterile neutrinos. See under IceCube

  submarine communication with

  and Supernova 1987a

  tau neutrinos. See also under IceCube

  and weak nuclear force

  See also antineutrinos; Pauli, Wolfgang: neutrino hypothesis

  NEutrinos from Supernovae and TeV sources, Ocean Range (NESTOR)

  neutron stars

  neutrons

  Newton, Isaac

  Nobel Dreams (Taubes)

  Nobel Prize

  Norsetter, Rhonda

  Nygren, David

  Obey, David

  Oh-My-God particle

  Orthmann, Wilhelm

  Pacific Science Congress (1979, Khabarovsk)

  Pais, Abraham

  Pakvasa, Sandip

  parity

  particle astrophysics

  Pauli, Wolfgang

  CPT theorem

  death

  and Einstein, Albert

  exclusion principle

  intuits spin

  and Jung, Carl

  neutrino hypothesis

  and parity

  Pauli effect

  psychological crisis

  youth and education

  Paulos, Bob

  Peacock, Dennis

  Peacock events

  Peierls, Rudolf

  Penzias, Arno

  Perl, Martin

  Phillips, Mark

  photons

  Physical Review

  Physical Review Letters

  Physical Sciences Laboratory. See under University of Wisconsin

  Physics World

  pion

  Polar Ice Coring Office (PICO)

  Pomerantz, Martin

  Pontecorvo, Bruno

  Pontecorvo, Gillo

  positron

  Powell, Anthony

  Powell, Cecil

  Price, Buford

  proton-electron model of atomic nucleus

  protons

  decay

  Przybylski, Jerry

  pulsars

  quantum electrodynamics

  quantum mechanics

  quark stars

  quarks

 
; Quarks and Leptons (Halzen and Martin)

  Rabi, I. I.

  Radio Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector (RAMAND)

  Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment (RICE)

  Rawlins, Katherine

  Raytheon

  Reagan, Ronald

  Redl, Peter

  Reeder, Don

  Regener, Erich

  Reines, Fred

  and DUMAND

  See also neutrinos, discovery of

  Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)

  Resvanis, Leo

  Roberts, Arthur

  Romenesko, Phil

  Rosenberg, Julius and Ethel

  Ross Ice Shelf

  Project

  Rossi, Bruno

  Rubbia, Carlo

  Rutherford, Ernest

  Sagan, Carl

  Salam, Abdus

  Sanduleak-69° 202a. See also supernovae: Supernova 1987a

  Schmitt, Harrison “Jack”

  Schneider, Darryn

  Schramm, David

  Schrödinger, Erwin

  Schwartz, Mel

  Schwarz, Robert

  Science

  Scientific Assessment Group for Experiments in Non-Accelerator Physics (SAGENAP)

  Scott, Robert

  Segrè, Emilio

  Segrè, Gino

  Smoot, George

  solar neutrino unit (SNU)

  Solvay Conference (1933, Brussels)

  Sommerfeld, Arnold

  South Pole Air Shower Experiment (SPASE)

  Soviet Academy of Sciences. See also Baikal neutrino telescope

  Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC)

  Spiering, Christian

  spin

  standard model of particle physics

  neutrinos and physics beyond

  Stanev, Todor

  Steenbock, Harry

  Stokstad, Bob

  strangeness

  SU(5) (Georgi–Glashow theory)

  Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO)

  Sullivan, Greg

  Superconducting Super Collider (SSC)

  Super-Kamiokande (Super-K). See also Kamioka Nucleon Decay Experiment (Kamiokande)

  SuperNova Early Warning System (SNEWS)

  supernovae

  Supernova 1987a

  Svoboda, Bob

  symmetry. See also Pauli, Wolfgang: CPT theorem

  T3 syndrome. See also winterover syndrome

  tau lepton

  Taubes, Gary

  Thompson, Lonnie

  Tilav, Serap

  Totsuka, Yoji

  Tower Operations Structure (TOS)

  Transantarctic Mountain Range

  Trinity explosion

  Turchetti, Simone

  Undersea Cosmic Lepton Experiment (UNCLE)

  UNderwater Detection of Interstellar Neutrino Emission (UNDINE)

  UNderwater Interstellar Cosmic Ray Neutrinos (UNICORN)

  United States Department of Energy (DOE)

  University of California, Berkeley

  University of California, Irvine

  University of Chicago

  University of Leeds

  University of Michigan

  University of Nebraska

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL)

  See also Cline, Camerini, Fry, March, Reeder (CCFMR) research group

  University of Witwatersrand

  uranium

  Van Hise, Charles

  Van Santen, Jakob

  Venice meeting

  Very Un-Likely Cherenkov Array Name (VULCAN)

  via Panisperna Boys. See under Fermi, Enrico

  Virgo Cluster

  W and Z bosons

  Watson, Alan

  Waxman, Eli

  Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP)

  Weaver, Chris

  Weekes, Trevor

  Weinberg, Steven

  Westphal, Andrew

  Wheeler, John Archibald

  Whitehorn, Nathan

  Wiebusch, Christopher

  Wiley, John

  Wilkness, Peter

  Wilson, Robert (Nobel Laureate)

  Wilson, Robert (Director of Fermilab)

  winterover syndrome. See also T3 syndrome

  Wischnewski, Ralf

  Wisconsin Alumni Research Fund (WARF)

  Wisconsin Idea

  Woosley, Stan

  Wooster, William

  Woschnagg, Kurt

  Wright, John

  Wright, Ned

  Wu, Chien-Shiung

  Yang, Chen-Ning

  Yeck, Jim

  Yukawa, Hideki

  Zas, Enrique

  Zatsepin, Georgii

  Zeller, Edward

  Zheleznykh, Igor

  Zimmerman, Herman

  Zweig, George

  Zwicky, Fritz

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  MARK BOWEN is a writer with a doctorate in physics, who lives in Vermont. He has been “embedded” in IceCube and AMANDA, its predecessor, since 1998. The Telescope in the Ice is his third book. You can sign up for email updates here.

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Introduction: Making Mistakes

  Part I

  The Birth and Youth of the Neutrino

    1.  This Crazy Child

    2.  Infancy and Youth

    3.  From Poltergeist to Particle

  Part II

  The Dream of Neutrino Astronomy

    4.  Wisconsin-Style Physics

    5.  Peaceful Exploration by Interested Scientists Throughout the World

    6.  Science at Its Best

  Part III

  Touching the Mystery

    7.  Solid-State DUMAND

    8.  Enter Bruce

    9.  The Crossover

  10.  A Supernova of Science

  11.  Doubling Down

  12.  Glory Days

  13.  Night on the Ice

  14.  The First Nus

  15.  The Peacock and Eva Events

  16.  Y2K at Pole

  Part IV

  The Real Thing

  17.  Sometimes You Get What You Ask For

  18.  No New Starts

  19.  The Coming of Yeck

  20.  Failure and Success

  21.  As Quickly as It All Began …

  22.  Crossing the Threshold

  Epilogue: The Dawn of Multi-Messenger Astronomy

  Acknowledgments

  Acronyms

  Timeline

  Notes

  References and Bibliography

  Index

  Illustrations

  Beta decay

  Muon decay

  The Markov or “plum pudding” design

  The Greisen or “shell” design

  Schematic of IceCube

  About the Author

  Copyright

  THE TELESCOPE IN THE ICE. Copyright © 2017 by Mark Bowen. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  Excerpts from “Open Letter to the Group of Radioactive Persons at the Conference of the District Society in Tübingen” originally appeared in “On the Earlier and More Recent History of the Neutrino,” Writings on Physics and Philosophy (1994), page 198, Wolfgang Pauli © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, and are used with permission of Springer.

  www.stmartins.com

 
; Cover photographs: telescope © Ian Rees, IceCube/NSF; stars © Avigator Thailand/Shutterstock.com

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Names: Bowen, Mark (Mark Stander), author.

  Title: The telescope in the ice: inventing a new astronomy at the South Pole / Mark Bowen.

  Description: New York: St. Martins Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017026874 | ISBN 9781137280084 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781466878983 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Neutrinos. | IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory.

  Classification: LCC QC793.5.N42 B69 2017 | DDC 522/.686—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017026874

  eISBN 9781466878983

  Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.

  First Edition: November 2017

  * The tau particle we are speaking of here is not the tau lepton. This tau and the theta were eventually recognized to be different states of the same particle, which was named the kaon.

  † University of Wisconsin.

  ‡ Argonne National Laboratory, outside Chicago.

  § High-energy physics

  * Quick rules of thumb: minus forty is minus forty, and minus eleven F is plus eleven C.

  † In particle physics notation the neutrino is denoted by the Greek character ν, or nu. The plural sounds like “news.”