Mines Scientist Travels to South Pole to Advance Cosmic Ray Studies at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Antarctica might not top the list of most people's typical travel destinations – unless you are a scientist unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

South Dakota Mines is one of 58 institutions across 14 countries that form the IceCube Collaboration - an international team driving the research and mission at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the world's largest neutrino observatory located at the geographic South Pole. The collaboration seeks to answer a variety of questions from cosmic rays to dark matter.

IceCube Observatory collects data from its surface array IceTop and an in-ice array. In December, Larissa Paul, a research scientist in the university’s physics department, will add another layer of data when she installs four telescopes at the observatory.

"These telescopes will look into the sky, enabling us to simultaneously capture events in the atmosphere, on the surface and deep within the glacial ice," she explained. "This is the only place on Earth where this is possible. While other projects focus on one or two aspects, we are the only system capable of integrating all three."

Paul’s trip to the South Pole is partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant Windows on the Universe Multi-Messenger Astrophysics: Cosmic-Ray Physics with IceCube. The IceCube observatory, built in 2011, is the first detector of its kind designed to observe the cosmos from deep within the glacial ice. IceTop has 81 stations each with two ice Cherenkov detectors. The in-ice array consists of a hexagonal grid of sensors embedded in a cubic kilometer of ice from 1,450 meters to 2,450 meters depth. The in-ice and surface array detect ultra-short light flashes from particle cascades initiated when high-energy cosmic rays hit the atmosphere. This unique setup enables scientific progress in understanding the origin of high-energy cosmic rays as well as particle physics at energies beyond the reach of the most powerful accelerator ever built.

“For this year, we will upgrade the single telescope on the stand to four IceAct telescopes in a fly's eye configuration," Paul said. “The combination of the telescopes works like the eye of a fly to better determine the direction of the particles.”

The winterovers, those individuals who brave the dark Antarctica winters and are essentially “stranded" at the Amundson-Scott South Pole Station, have installed the telescope stand designed and built by Matthias Plum, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics at Mines. They are responsible for operating the station and managing science projects when the station is closed from mid-February to early November. The brief months during austral summer draw a surge of researchers and serve as the peak period for scientific activities.

"There are two telescopes down there and two on the way,” Paul said. "I am going to install all four telescopes on the stand and upgrade the electronics box, which was also built at Mines.”

Paul's work is an extension of a $6.6 million NSF grant the university received in 2020. The four-year project titled “RII Track-2 FEC: The IceCube EPSCoR Initiative (IEI) – IceCube and the Data Revolution” brought together scientists from South Dakota Mines, the University of Alabama, the University of Alaska–Anchorage, the University of Delaware, the University of Kansas, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Southern University and A&M College. Xinhua Bai, Ph.D., Mines professor of physics and one of the founding members of the IceCube Collaboration, headed up the research that enhances big data processing and prepares for the planned IceCube Gen-2.

Paul leaves for the South Pole on Dec. 7. This is her second time traveling to Antarctica. Her first trip was when she was living in Germany working on her doctorate.