Neutrino astronomy on the 1 km² scale

The authors discuss sources of very high energy cosmic neutrinos, from the accelerators of the observed high energy cosmic rays to active galactic nuclei and stark matter particles trapped in the Sun. The survey leads to the conclusion that an area of 1 km² is the natural scale of a future neutrino telescope. They subsequently review cost effective methods to commission such detectors emphasizing recent initiatives to use large volumes of the polar ice cap as a low-noise particle detector sensing the Cherenkov light from neutrino-induced muons. They describe the first encouraging results of a program mapping the optical clarity of polar ice at depths ranging from 200 m to 1 km. The authors also review detailed numerical simulations of an alternative technique which consists of detecting the GHz radiosignals generated by the neutrino-induced electromagnetic cascade in ice.