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A.J. Carver (Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Neutrino-based astronomy provides a new window on the most dynamic and energetic processes in the universe. Neutrinos are ideal cosmic messengers: they travel in straight paths from their sources and at no energy are they absorbed by background light. The discovery of high energy (~ 1014 eV) muonic neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) would confirm hadronic acceleration in the relativistic GRB wind, validate the phenomenology of the canonical fireball model and provide an acceleration mechanism for the highest energy cosmic rays. The Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) is the worlds largest operational neutrino telescope with a PeV muon effective area ~ 50,000 m2. AMANDA is an array of photomultiplier tubes buried deep within the ice at the geographic South Pole used to detect Cherenkov radiation. AMANDA has been successfully calibrated on the signal of atmospheric neutrinos. Previous searches have focused on the diffuse neutrino flux produced by all GRBs over cosmological time and have been consistent with no GRB neutrino signal. We use new methods tailored to the individual parameters of each GRB observed by BATSE in spatial and temporal coincidence with AMANDA observations. In this manner, the neutrino flux from individual GRBs will be determined and directly compared with our data. This work will provide an infrastructure that will easily allow for the study of data from future instruments such as Swift and IceCube. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation. Specifically NSF-REU site grant (AST-0139563) to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: acarver@wisc.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.