Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Embedded in the South Pole's glacial ice, IceCube detects neutrino-induced Cherenkov light using an array of digital optical modules equipped with single photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The new extension installed in 2025/2026, the IceCube Upgrade, introduces densely instrumented multi-PMT optical modules within the existing infill array known as IceCube DeepCore. It is expected to enhance sensitivity in the GeV regime, with commissioning of the detector expected to be complete by the end of 2026. We present the projected sensitivities of the IceCube Upgrade for three key analyses: neutrino transient searches, steady emission from point sources such as NGC 1068, and diffuse emission from the Milky Way. These case studies represent direct extensions of current IceCube analyses. Using new Monte Carlo datasets, we demonstrate that the IceCube Upgrade achieves order-of-magnitude improvement in sensitivity at low energies ($\lesssim 10$ GeV) for time-dependent sources across short timescales. Conversely, for time-independent searches, the relative impact of the IceCube Upgrade's low-energy data is diluted by the decade-long accumulation of high-energy archival data. Nevertheless, we project significant improvements for soft-spectrum sources especially across the southern sky, driven by the IceCube Upgrade's superior background rejection capabilities. The improved sensitivity at low energies for both transient and steady sources will open up an expanded discovery window for IceCube in the GeV band over the next decade.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Abbasi, R., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., Alameddine, J. M., Ali, S., Amin, N. M., Andeen, K., Arg{ü}elles, C., Athanasiadou, S., Axani, S. N., Babu, R., Bai, X., V., A. Balagopal, Barwick, S. W., Basu, V., Bay, R., Beatty, J. J., Tjus, J. Becker, Behrens, P., Beise, J., Bellenghi, C., Benkel, S., BenZvi, S., Berley, D., Bernardini, E., Besson, D. Z., Blaufuss, E., Bloom, L., Blot, S., Bontempo, F., Motzkin, J. Y. Book, Meneguolo, C. Boscolo, B{ö}ser, S., Botner, O., B{ö}ttcher, J., Braun, J., Brinson, B., Brisson-Tsavoussis, Z., Brusa, L., Burley, R. T., Butterfield, D., Carloni, K., Carpio, J., Chau, N., Chen, Y. C., Chen, Z., Chirkin, D., Choi, S., Chubarov, A., Clark, B. A., Borja, D. A. Coloma, Connolly, A., Conrad, J. M., Cowen, D. F., De Clercq, C., DeLaunay, J. J., Delgado, D., Delmeulle, T., Deng, S., Desiati, P., de Vries, K. D., de Wasseige, G., DeYoung, T., D{\'ı}az-V{é}lez, J. C., DiKerby, S., Ding, T., Dittmer, M., Domi, A., Draper, L., Dueser, L., Durnford, D., Dutta, K., DuVernois, M. A., Ehrhardt, T., Eidenschink, L., Eimer, A., Eldridge, C., Eller, P., Ellinger, E., Els{ä}sser, D., Engel, R., Erpenbeck, H., Esmail, W., Eulig, S., Evans, J., Evenson, P. A., Fan, K. L., Fang, K., Farrag, K., Fattorini, A., Fazely, A. R., Fedynitch, A., Feigl, N., Finley, C., Fox, D., Franckowiak, A., Fukami, S., F{ü}rst, P., Gallagher, J., Ganster, E., Garcia, A., Garcia, M., Genton, E., Gerhardt, L., Ghadimi, A., Glaser, C., Gl{ü}senkamp, T., Gonzalez, J. G., Goswami, S., Granados, A., Grant, D., Gray, S. J., Griffin, S., Griswold, S., Groth, K. M., Guevel, D., G{ü}nther, C., Gutjahr, P., Ha, C., Hallgren, A., Halve, L., Halzen, F., Hamacher, L., Handt, M., Hanson, K., Hardin, J., Harnisch, A. A., Hatch, P., Haungs, A., H{ä}ußler, J., Helbing, K., Hellrung, J., Henke, B., Hennig, L., Henningsen, F., Heuermann, L., Hewett, R., Heyer, N., Hickford, S., Hidvegi, A., Hill, C., Hill, G. C., Hmaid, R., Hoffman, K. D., Hollnagel, A., Hooper, D., Hori, S., Hoshina, K., Hostert, M., Hou, W., Hrywniak, M., Huber, T., Hultqvist, K., Hymon, K., Ishihara, A., Iwakiri, W., Jacquart, M., Jain, S., Janik, O., Jansson, M., Jin, M., Kamp, N., Kang, D., Kang, W., Kappes, A., Kardum, L., Karg, T., Karle, A., Katil, A., Kauer, M., Kelley, J. L., Khanal, M., Zathul, A. Khatee, Kheirandish, A., Kim, T., Kimku, H., Kirchner, F., Kiryluk, J., Klein, C., Klein, S. R., Kobayashi, Y., Koch, S., Kochocki, A., Koirala, R., Kolanoski, H., Kontrimas, T., K{ö}pke, L., Kopper, C., Koskinen, D. J., Koundal, P., Kowalski, M., Kozynets, T., Kravka, A., Krieger, N., Krishnan, T., Kruiswijk, K., Krupczak, E., Kun, E., Kurahashi, N., Gualda, C. Lagunas, Arnaud, L. Lallement, Larson, M. J., Lauber, F., Lazar, J. P., DeHolton, K. Leonard, Leszczy{ń}ska, A., Li, C., Liao, J., Lin, C., Liu, Q. R., Liu, Y. T., Liubarska, M., Love, C., Lu, L., Lucarelli, F., Luszczak, W., Lyu, Y., Macdonald, M., Magnus, E., Makino, Y., Manao, E., Mancina, S., Mand, A., Mari{ş}, I. C., Marka, S., Marka, Z., Marten, L., Martinez-Soler, I., Maruyama, R., Mauro, J., Mayhew, F., McNally, F., Meagher, K., Medina, A., Meier, M., Merckx, Y., Merten, L., Mitchell, J., Molchany, L., Mondal, S., Montaruli, T., Moore, R. W., Morii, Y., Mosbrugger, A., Mousadi, D., Moyaux, E., Mukherjee, T., Nakos, M., Naumann, U., Neshat, R., Neste, L., Neumann, M., Niederhausen, H., Nisa, M. U., Noda, K., Noell, A., Novikov, A., Obertacke, A., O'Dell, V., Olivas, A., Orsoe, R., Osborn, J., O'Sullivan, E., Owens, B., Palusova, V., Pandya, H., Parenti, A., Parisel, C., Park, N., Parrish, V., Paudel, E. N., Paul, L., Pernice, T., Petersen, T. C., Peterson, J., Pick, S., Plum, M., Pont{é}n, A., Poojyam, V., Pries, B., Procter-Murphy, R., Przybylski, G. T., Pyras, L., Raab, C., Rack-Helleis, J., Rad, N., Ravn, M., Rawlins, K., Rechav, Z., Rehman, A., Reistroffer, I., Resconi, E., Rho, C. D., Rhode, W., Ricca, L., Riedel, B., Rifaie, A., Roberts, E. J., Rodan, S., Rongen, M., Rosted, A., Rott, C., Ruhe, T., Ruohan, L., Ryckbosch, D., Saffer, J., Salazar-Gallegos, D., Sampathkumar, P., Sandrock, A., Sanger-Johnson, G., Santander, M., Sarkar, S., Scarnera, M., Schaufel, M., Schieler, H., Schindler, S., Schlickmann, L., Schl{ü}ter, B., Schl{ü}ter, F., Schmeisser, N., Schmidt, T., Schmitt, F., Scholz, A., Schr{ö}der, F. G., Schwirn, S., Sclafani, S., Seckel, D., Seen, L., Seikh, M., Seunarine, S., Myhr, P. A. Sevle, Shah, R., Shah, S., Shefali, S., Shimizu, N., Shin, M., Skrzypek, B., Snihur, R., Soedingrekso, J., Soldin, D., Soldin, P., Sommani, G., Song, D., Spannfellner, C., Spiczak, G. M., Spiering, C., Stachurska, J., Stamatikos, M., Stanev, T., Stezelberger, T., St{ü}rwald, T., Stuttard, T., Sullivan, G. W., Taboada, I., Ter-Antonyan, S., Terliuk, A., Thakuri, A., Thiesmeyer, M., Thompson, W. G., Thwaites, J., Tian, W., Tilav, S., Tollefson, K., Torres, J. A., Toscano, S., Tosi, D., Upshaw, K., Vaidyanathan, A., Valtonen-Mattila, N., Valverde, J., Vandenbroucke, J., Van Eeden, T., van Eijndhoven, N., Van Rootselaar, L., van Santen, J., Vara, J., Varsi, F., Velazquez, M., Venugopal, M., Vereecken, M., Carrasco, S. Vergara, Verpoest, S., Veske, D., Vijai, A., Villarreal, J., Walck, C., Wang, A., Warrick, E. H. S., Weaver, C., Weigel, P., Weindl, A., Weldert, J., Wen, A. Y., Wendt, C., Werthebach, J., Weyrauch, M., Whitehorn, N., Wiebusch, C. H., Williams, D. R., Witthaus, L., Woodward, J., Wrede, G., Xu, X. W., Yanez, J. P., Yao, Y., Yildizci, E., Yoshida, S., Yu, F., Yu, S., Yuan, T., Yun-C{á}rcamo, S., Jurowitzki, A. Zander, Zegarelli, A., Zhang, S., Zhang, Z., Zhelnin, P., Zilberman, P., Ca{ñ}as, C. Zilleruelo
Institutions: Loyola University Chicago, Chiba University, University of Canterbury, Université Libre de Bruxelles, University of Copenhagen, TU Dortmund University, Michigan State University, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Berkeley, The Ohio State University, Ruhr University Bochum, RWTH Aachen University, Technical University of Munich, University of Maryland, College Park, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Queen's University, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, The University of Adelaide, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Kansas, Mercer University, UCLouvain, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, University of Alberta, Ghent University, Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Simon Fraser University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Geneva, University of Alaska Anchorage
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nvidia, Michigan State University, Villum Fonden, Polarforskningssekretariatet, Marquette University, Western Canada Research Grid, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, National Research Foundation of Korea, Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse, Vetenskapsrådet, RWTH Aachen University, Chiba University, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics, College of Engineering, Michigan State University, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Marsden Fund, Institute for Global Prominent Research, Chiba University, Office of Polar Programs, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
OpenAlex ID: W7204790528
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