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Recovering astroparticle physics PhD here. I read this news with great interest because I thought they might have finally detected the flux of neutrinos predic
by nategri 8y ago
Recovering astroparticle physics PhD here.
I read this news with great interest because I thought they might have finally detected the flux of neutrinos predicted by the GZK process[1]. But, this can't be the case because 1) 10^14 eV is probably on the low side for GZK neutrinos, and (more importantly!) 2) that flux would be fairly isotropic, and not from point source.
But still! Exciting results! IceCube is an ambitious and wonderful detector and I'm always pleased to see it in the news.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greisen%E2%80%93Zatsepin%E2%80%93Kuzmin_limit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greisen%E2%80%93Zatsepin%E2%80...
- cozzyd 8y agoNah, the IceCube neutrinos are probably photonuclear with local photons rather than CMB photons.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- throwaway2016a 8y agoIs this how other people hear software developers when we talk about code?
- ryanhuff 8y agoYes. And the same goes with finance people, and people in lots of other fields. Jargon rich conversations that outsiders think is mumbo-jumbo.
- IrishJourno 8y agoI'm the author of the Spectrum article: this is the exact reason why I get paid for my job :)
- fit2rule 8y agoYou did a great job of inspiring me to understand something I have, literally, not even the foggiest iota of a clue about. I finished your article in awe at the human species.
- IrishJourno 8y agoThen I consider that a job very well done :) We can do some pretty neat stuff as a species when we want to...
- nonbel 8y ago>"After 3.9 billion years of hurtling unhindered through the vast reaches of the universe, a ghostly neutrino particle died on 22 September 2017. It was annihilated when it collided with an atom in the frozen darkness two kilometers beneath the surface of the south polar ice cap." Your article says the neutrino came from far away, which disagrees with that post that says it was probably "photonuclear with local photons".
- cozzyd 8y agoThat's exactly why the author gets paid. By local I meant near the source, not near us.
- nonbel 8y agoNot saying you are wrong about the terminology, but if local photons are "produced at the source", the use of "local" seems to be redundant. When would a photon not be created at the source? What is a non-local photon, only CMB photons?
- raziel2701 8y agoIf you're in a field in a windy day you cannot tell where the wind is originating from. If you're in a room with a fan turned on, you can tell where the wind is being sourced. The source of the wind has been localized in this latter scenario, whereas in the first you can detect the wind but you can't tell what the source of the wind is. That's the gist of the local versus non-local neutrinos being detected.
- cozzyd 8y agoExcept that we physicists can usually understand you :) (since many of us spend most of our time writing code too...)
- dekhn 8y agoTo translate (correctly, i hope): the neutrinos come from far away and interact with local nuclei, generating photons within the vicinity of the neutrino/nuclear interaction, rather than the photons coming from far away space.
- cozzyd 8y agoThe opposite, the IceCube neutrinos are likely produced in proton-photon interactions near the source with photons from the source rather than being produced in proton-CMB photon (GZK) interactions elsewhere.
- Diederich 8y ago> Recovering astroparticle physics PhD here If I may ask: why 'recovering'?
- cozzyd 8y agoPresumably he's out in industry making the big bucks now.
- jjoonathan 8y agoThere's a massive oversupply of people who want to do science vs science that people will pay to have done. Supply and demand are balanced by making the environment so toxic that most leave. Hence 'recovering.'
- everybodyknows 8y agoA pity some of our new billionaires don't make a hobby out of funding genuine science research. Rather than, say, adventures in space tourism.
- ISL 8y agoAgreed. If Musk had wanted to make a science contribution, he might have launched one of these [1] instead of a Tesla. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LARES_(satellite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LARES_(satellite)
- Diederich 8y agoWould they have allowed their satellite to be launched on an untested platform? That's the idea of putting a 'worthless' payload up first.
- IrishJourno 8y agoAgreed. I'm not a Musk fanboy, but most rockets are initially tested with inert dummy payloads. The choice wasn't between a Tesla and a science satellite, but between a Tesla and sand.
- 8bitsrule 8y agoCurious: alcoholics have Bill Wilson to help them recover ... who do astrophysicists have? (the kind of question that reveals search engine limitations)
- bacon_waffle 8y agoJack Daniels?
- sonofaragorn 8y agoLarge paychecks from industry/finance