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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 65: Invited Topical Talks IV

T 65.1: Invited Topical Talk

Thursday, March 19, 2026, 13:45–14:15, MED 00.915

Atmospheric neutrino oscillations with IceCube and the IceCube Upgrade — •Jan Weldert — Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz

DeepCore, the low-energy extension of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, detects hundreds of thousands of atmospheric neutrinos per year at the basic filter level. This enables the oscillation properties of these elusive particles to be studied. Even in its current configuration, the detector achieves a level of precision to atmospheric oscillation parameters comparable to that of long-baseline accelerator experiments. One of DeepCore's particular strengths lies in its wide range of baselines, some of which pass through the Earth's dense core. As part of the so-called IceCube Upgrade, additional optical modules were added to the detector earlier this year. Compared to the existing modules, these new modules have larger photo cathode areas and are spaced closer together. This substantially increases the number of atmospheric neutrinos detected, particularly at energies of a few GeV. Additionally, the energy, direction and topology of the detected neutrinos can be reconstructed with greater precision. All of this significantly increases IceCube's sensitivity to atmospheric neutrino oscillation studies, especially the neutrino mass ordering.

In my talk, I will explain how we conduct atmospheric neutrino oscillation studies in IceCube, present our latest results and show the potential of the IceCube Upgrade. The focus will be on the determination of the atmospheric oscillation parameters and the neutrino mass ordering.

Keywords: atmospheric neutrinos; neutrino oscillation