The LED calibration systems for the mDOM and D-Egg sensor modules of the IceCube Upgrade: Design, production, testing and use in module calibration
Journal of Instrumentation IOP Publishing 20:11 (2025) P11026
Abstract:
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, instrumenting about 1 km3 of deep, glacial ice at the geographic South Pole, is due to be enhanced with the IceCube Upgrade. The IceCube Upgrade, to be deployed during the 2025/26 Antarctic summer season, will consist of seven new strings of photosensors, densely embedded near the bottom center of the existing array. Aside from a world-leading sensitivity to neutrino oscillations, a primary goal is the improvement of the calibration of the optical properties of the instrumented ice. This calibration will be applied to the entire archive of IceCube data, improving the angular and energy resolution of the detected neutrino events. For this purpose, the Upgrade strings include a host of new calibration devices. Aside from dedicated calibration modules, several thousand LED flashers have been incorporated into the photosensor modules. We describe the design, production, and testing of these LED flashers before their integration into the sensor modules as well as the use of the LED flashers during lab testing of assembled sensor modules.Limits on GeV-scale WIMP Annihilation in Dwarf Spheroidals with IceCube DeepCore
(2025)
Suppression of pair beam instabilities in a laboratory analogue of blazar pair cascades
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Sciences 122:45 (2025) e2513365122
Abstract:
The generation of dense electron-positron pair beams in the laboratory can enable direct tests of theoretical models of γ-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei. We have successfully achieved this using ultrarelativistic protons accelerated by the Super Proton Synchrotron at (CERN). In the first application of this experimental platform, the stability of the pair beam is studied as it propagates through a meter-length plasma, analogous to TeV γ-ray-induced pair cascades in the intergalactic medium. It has been argued that pair beam instabilities disrupt the cascade, thus accounting for the observed lack of reprocessed GeV emission from TeV blazars. If true, this would remove the need for a moderate strength intergalactic magnetic field to explain the observations. We find that the pair beam instability is suppressed if the beam is not perfectly collimated or monochromatic, hence the lower limit to the intergalactic magnetic field inferred from γ-ray observations of blazars is robust.Spectrum of PeV Cosmic-Ray Protons and Helium Nuclei with IceCube
Sissa Medialab Srl (2025) 376
Search for GeV-scale Dark Matter from the Galactic Center with IceCube-DeepCore
(2025)