Searching for Quantum Gravity with High Energy Atmospheric Neutrinos and AMANDA-II Original Research Article

The AMANDA-II detector, operating since 2000 in the deep ice at the geographic South Pole, has accumulated a large sample of atmospheric muon neutrinos in the 100 GeV to 10 TeV energy range. The zenith angle and energy distribution of these events can be used to search for various phenomenological signatures of quantum gravity in the neutrino sector, such as violation of Lorentz invariance or quantum decoherence. We present the results of such searches using a likelihood method on data from 2000 to 2006. In the absence of new physics, we use the same methodology to constrain conventional models of the atmospheric neutrino flux. The next-generation IceCube detector, now over 50% complete, will provide even more sensitive tests of both conventional neutrino physics as well as physics beyond the Standard Model.