IceCube Lead Scientist Francis Halzen Wins Nobel Prize in Physics

Francis Halzen, lead scientist of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, according to Wired. Halzen is based at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where the IceCube project is anchored.

The observatory itself sits at the geographic South Pole. It contains 5,160 optical sensors buried in 1 cubic kilometer of ice, built to catch the faint flashes produced when neutrinos interact with the ice.

IceCube has detected high-energy neutrinos from the blazar TXS 0506+056, a finding that linked a specific cosmic source to the particles. The observatory has also observed the Milky Way as a diffuse source of neutrinos.

Juan Carlos Díaz Vélez, a researcher at the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, took part in the project. The observatory was constructed with his participation in 2010 and began operations in 2011.

Its first major discovery was the detection of neutrinos from astrophysical sources outside our solar system. Researchers identified neutrinos from TXS 0506+056 in collaboration with other observatories that collected gamma-ray, optical, and radio signals.

Last year's Nobel laureates in physics discovered that neutrinos can transform from one type to another as they travel.