The IceCube collaboration installed and operates the largest neutrino-observatory in the world at the geographic South-Pole. Signals created by high-energy neutrinos in the Antarctic ice are detected by several thousand optical sensors in a volume of about 1 km3. A small fraction of the highest energetic neutrinos originate from extraterrestrial sources, such as Active Galactic Nuclei. We are mostly interested in the particle physics aspects that can be probed with this astroparticle physics facility.
Our group is active in the IceTop component of the IceCube detector: a 1km2 array of detectors placed on the surface of the icesheet over IceCube, capable of observing charged cosmic rays in the energy range between the knee and the ankle of the cosmic ray spectrum. We use these high energy particles to study e.g. particle interactions at energies beyond those reached with the most powerful accelerators on Earth.
In addition, our group uses the IceCube detector to search for particles with anomalous charge (e.g. 1/3 of the electron charge).