Ignacio Taboada
University of California at Berkeley
Abstract:
IceCube is a high energy (E~>TeV) neutrino telescope currently
under construction at the South Pole. After it is completed the deep-ice component
of IceCube will have 4800 Digital Optical Modules in 80 strings with an instrumented
volume of approximately 1 km^3. The main objective of IceCube is the search
for extraterrestrial sources of high energy neutrinos. Mainly, there are two
channels for the detection of neutrinos with IceCube: neutrino-induced muons
and neutrino-induced cascades. The latter channel has historically received
far less attention than the former. In this talk I will review several methodological
aspects of neutrino telescopes in relation to neutrino-induced cascades. I will
also point out the advantages of using cascades as a channel for neutrino detection.
Finally I will discuss some of the areas in which cascades are competitive with
the muon channel.