From Detector to Astrophysics: Building Neutrino Samples That Power Discovery

by Dr Ashwathi Balagopal (Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware)

Wednesday 26 Nov 2025, 14:00 → 16:00 Asia/Kolkata

AG 80 (TIFR, Mumbai)

Understanding the astrophysical neutrino flux requires not only a large detector like IceCube, but also carefully curated datasets optimized for precision measurements. Achieving this demands detailed knowledge of detector performance and continuous refinement of neutrino-selection methods. In this talk, I will focus on these aspects in the context of the Medium Energy Starting Event (MESE) sample, which enabled the measurement of a break in the cosmic neutrino spectrum and delivered one of the most precise determinations of the flavor composition to date. I will discuss the data-selection strategy behind MESE and further efforts on transitioning this data stream to the standard filters used in IceCube.

tifr_talk2_aswathi.pdf