– Scientists using the IceCube observatory at the South Pole say they have detected 7 candidate astrophysical tau neutrino events.
– Tau neutrinos are exotic “ghost particles” that are very rarely detected due to their low interaction rate.
– IceCube detected the neutrino signals using strings of digital optical sensors buried deep within the Antarctic ice.
– When high-energy neutrinos interact in the ice, they produce light that is detected by the sensors. Tau neutrinos create a distinctive double pulse pattern.
– Researchers analyzed a decade’s worth of IceCube data using neural networks to hunt for tau neutrino signals amid background events.
– They identified 7 strong tau neutrino candidate detections, which has a very low probability of being mimicked by background according to their analysis.
– If validated, it would be the first detection of astrophysical tau neutrinos and open up a new messenger for studying high-energy cosmic phenomena.
– Further IceCube observations could help study neutrino oscillations and better understand where neutrinos come from in the universe.
Source: space
