The IceCube Collaboration (the Collaboration) is an organization of scientists who collectively participate in a research program to study high-energy neutrinos from cosmic sources. The Collaboration uses the IceCube Observatory at the NSF South Pole Amundsen-Scott station for this research program. The IceCube Observatory consists of a surface array, IceTop, and a deep ice array IceCube. The IceCube array includes the strings of the former AMANDA detector.
The Construction Phase of IceCube is specified as the period when activities are governed by the construction Cooperative Agreement with NSF and MoU's with Constituent institutions. The International Oversight and Finance Group functions are defined in the Project Management Plan (PMP). The Host Institution for the IceCube project is the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). Responsibilities are defined in the Cooperative Agreement with NSF. During the operations phase (which will co-exist with the construction phase until the detector is complete) activities will be governed by a single MOU with the host institution signed by all constituent institutions.
The IceCube Collaboration consists of scientists at Collaboration Constituent Institutions. The condition for membership and for institutional recognition is that the group makes a significant contribution to IceCube. Significant contributions will include a contribution to the common fund proportional to the number of Ph.D. scientists in the group as well as contributions to detector operations and data analysis. The proposed contributions, role in the scientific program, and personnel are to be detailed in the MOU.
Current members of the Collaboration as of the date of revision of this document come from the institutions listed in Appendix A. (This Appendix also lists the initial institutions of IceCube.) Any scientist or group of scientists may apply to the spokesperson of the Collaboration for membership of their institution in IceCube. Admission of new Collaboration Constituent Institutions requires approval by a two-thirds majority of the IceCube Collaboration Board of the proposed contributions, role in the research program, and terms of the initial MOU. Scientists who join member groups at Institutions that already are members of the Collaboration will automatically be accepted as members of the Collaboration.
Membership of an individual or Institution may be revoked by the Spokesperson for just cause, e.g. actions detrimental to IceCube. A two-thirds majority concurring vote is required of the Collaboration Board.
Functions and Responsibilities
The Collaboration Board is the policy-making entity that guides and governs the scientific activities of the Collaboration. It establishes, and as necessary amends, governance procedures and has oversight and authority over:
The Collaboration Board, during the construction phase of IceCube, advises the Project Director on:
detector operation for scientific investigations and maintenance. The Collaboration Board, through the Collaboration Spokesperson, maintains contact and communication with the Project Office during the construction phase of IceCube. It participates in the change control process as articulated in the IceCube Project Management Plan. The Collaboration Board may, through the Spokesperson, propose modifications to the change control process for consideration by the Project Office.
The Collaboration Board ratifies the Collaboration Governance document and may introduce amendments to it.
The Collaboration Board ratifies the Project Management Plan (PMP) and may suggest amendments to it.
The Collaboration Board, during the construction phase of IceCube, advises the Project Director on selection of, and consents to appointment of, Project Office staff responsible for Data Systems and Detector Commissioning. Concerns of the Collaboration members are addressed to Collaboration Board members who, when appropriate, bring those before the Collaboration Board for its consideration.
At the request of a Board member the Board may require a detailed verbal, or written, report from the Spokesperson on any action.
Each Collaboration Constituent Institution is represented on the Collaboration Board. The number of votes per institution depends on number of Ph.D. physicists (see for the key section 6 below).
Early Career - less than five years after the Ph D - scientists in the Collaboration are represented by two additional, at-large, members chosen collectively by Early-Career Collaboration participants. The term of service is one year, renewable. Election rules for Early Career scientist are given in Appendix B. Of the two members, one is voting whereas the other is a non-voting adjunct member. Information of who is voting should be given to the spokesperson before each meeting of the Collaboration Board. During the IceCube construction phase, the P.I. of the construction grant from NSF (the IceCube P.I.) is an ex-officio member of the Collaboration Board. During the IceCube construction phase, the leads for constructing the Data Systems and for Detector Commissioning & Verification will attend the Collaboration Board meetings as ex-officio, non-voting members.
The Collaboration Board is chaired by the Collaboration Spokesperson. The spokesperson is an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Collaboration Board. The Spokesperson is elected by the Ph.D. members of the collaboration. The election procedure is as follows:
Each nominee is urged to prepare a statement that contains her/his assessment of the state of IceCube, goals and plans for action to be taken during his/her tenure as spokesperson. The text of the statement should accompany the nominee's acceptance notice to the nomination commission who will distribute it with the ballot to the Collaboration membership.
During the construction phase of IceCube, the IceCube P.I serves as co-Spokesperson. During the operations phase the Spokesperson may select a Deputy Spokesperson. The Board ratifies the choice. The Deputy (co-Spokesperson) performs the duties of the Spokesperson when necessary if the Spokesperson is unable to do so. The Deputy (co-Spokesperson) is an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Collaboration Board. If the Spokesperson or Deputy (co-Spokesperson) is a regular Collaboration Board member, a replacement is chosen by the affected Institution. The period of office of the Spokesperson and the Deputy Spokesperson is two years, renewable - but at most four consecutive years.
The Spokesperson, as Collaboration Executive
As a rule, the Collaboration Board meets during general Collaboration meetings. More frequent telephone or video conferences may be called by the Spokesperson, with normally two weeks prior notice having been given Board members. A minimum of two-thirds of Collaboration Board members is required to constitute a quorum. The Spokesperson will appoint a secretary to each Collaboration Meeting for writing the minutes. The minutes will include all decisions that were taken. Minutes will be posted on the IceCube private www site within one week following the meeting, following approval by the Collaboration Board members.
The Spokesperson, in consultation with the Collaboration Board and, during the construction phase, with the P.I. and the Project Director, appoints and chairs an Executive Committee of the Collaboration Board. The term of the Executive members is two years. The job of the Executive Committee is to advise the Spokesperson in proposing actions to the Collaboration Board and in making interim decisions. The members of the Executive Committee should represent major groups, functions and competences within the Collaboration.
In general, matters before the Collaboration Board are settled by consensus of its members. A formal vote will be ordered by the Spokesperson, if called for by a Collaboration Board member or by the Spokesperson. The vote of an institution is weighted in dependence of the number of Ph.D. physicists. The weight is equal to the square root of PhD physicists, rounded to the nearest integer. The weights are fixed twice per year. In case of a tie vote, the Spokesperson casts a vote. Results will be announced to the Collaboration Board by the Spokesperson. Polling is done by Email or at meetings of the Collaboration Board. All votes will be open, except where persons are concerned. The voting procedure for the spokesperson is described in section 3.
The IceCube collaboration collectively and individually participates in and provides support for efforts in public outreach and education on subjects related to its science. The Spokesperson, with Collaboration Board concurrence, responds to requests for information from the media or may take the initiative providing material. The Project Director, with Collaboration Board concurrence, appoints a Collaboration member to lead an education program for students and teachers at all levels. In the operations phase of IceCube Spokesperson assumes responsibility for the appointment. The Collaboration maintains coordination and cooperation with other ongoing education initiatives. All material to be released for purposes of public outreach or education containing other than previously published data or results must have been agreed upon by the Collaboration Board.
Meetings
Collaboration meetings are held at least two times in a year. Locations are distributed among Collaboration Constituent institutions, chosen by the Spokesperson, and ratified by Board concurrence. The hosting institution is responsible for physical meeting arrangements. Agendas are set by the Spokesperson together with the hosting institution, the working group leads and the L2 managers, with concurrence of the Collaboration Board.
Data Reduction and Analysis
Raw, unfiltered data written to tape at Pole are transported to the UW data center for archival storage. Filtered data are transmitted daily via satellite link to the UW data center and stored on disk. Additionally, the filtered data will be copied via internet to DESY and stored on disk as a second official copy. Possible reassignments in the operation phase are the responsibility of the Spokesperson, given Collaboration Board concurrence. All current members have access to archived data. The Collaboration Board consents to the appointment of Collaboration members who have been chosen by the Project Director to lead the Detector Verification efforts. The Spokesperson, with Collaboration Board concurrence will appoint an Analysis Coordinator to work as a liaison with the Project Office to organize working groups as appropriate. The term of service is two years, renewable. In the Operations phase of IceCube the Analysis Coordinator assumes responsibility for organization and management of data analysis efforts.
Detector operations and monitoring
During the Construction phase of IceCube the Detector Commissioning & Verification lead has responsibility for overseeing the operation of, and verifying the performance of, array components as installed and commissioned. In the Operations phase of IceCube, the Spokesperson with Collaboration Board concurrence appoints a Collaboration member to organize and lead a group responsible for detector Monitoring, Maintenance and Calibration. The term of service is one year, renewable. Detector monitoring is a collaboration-wide shared responsibility.
The Spokesperson, with concurrence of the Collaboration Board, appoints a Collaboration member to chair a Speakers Committee. The designated chairperson chooses three (max. four) other members of this Speakers Committee. The term of the speakers committee is 2 years. A rapid decision channel (chair + spokesperson) can be enabled if there is insufficient time to involve the whole committee. Invitations to present Collaboration results, or performance reviews, are submitted to the Speakers Committee. The Speakers Committee chooses the speaker.
The Speakers Committee maintains records of conference presentations. The conference organization is notified by the Spokesperson of the identity of the nominated speaker and the subject of the talk and its approval is sought. Approval must be obtained from the Spokesperson, with Collaboration Board concurrence, to present previously unreported data and/or results. Transcriptions of verbatim reports of approved presentations to be included in conference proceedings are posted on the IceCube www site not later than two weeks before the editorial deadline to allow review, comments and suggestions for revisions by the Collaboration. The Collaboration Board approves final text, figures, and tables. Such controls do not normally apply to colloquium or seminar talks at members' home or other institutions on personal invitation but the Collaboration Board must be made aware of any new results which differ from results already public or might be controversial. For presenting such results Collaboration Board approval must be obtained.
Reports in proceedings are bylined with the presenter's name followed by "for the IceCube Collaboration". The complete author list in alphabetic order should if possible be included. Otherwise a reference is made to the complete author list elsewhere. The Collaboration Board constructs the author list from compilations provided it by Constituent Institution representatives. Others who have contributed to a particular effort may be included as authors. Individual requests not to be included as authors are acceded to without prejudice.
Any Constituent Institution representative may request a variance from the default listing to allow a conference presentation authored by a subset of members and others who have contributed to a particular special (usually technical) subject. A 2/3 majority of the Collaboration Board is required for approval.
The Spokesperson, with concurrence of the Collaboration Board, appoints a Collaboration member to chair a Publications Committee. The designated chairperson chooses up to six other members of this Publications Committee. The term of the publication committee is 2 years. This committee coordinates the appointment of internal review committees for each paper in coordination with the analysis coordinator and the working group leaders as described in Appendix C, Section 1.5.1.3.
Results are to be submitted for publication in refereed journals. Drafts of research results are prepared by the analysis teams; drafts of papers on technical matters are prepared by the cognizant individuals. The internal review procedure is described in Appendix C Journal articles are bylined by the full author list in alphabetical order. The Collaboration Board constructs the author list from compilations provided it by Constituent Institution representatives. Others who have contributed to a particular effort may be included as authors. Individual requests not to be included as authors are acceded to without prejudice. Any Constituent Institution representative may request a variance from the default listing to allow submission of a paper for publication authored by a subset of members and others who have contributed to a particular special (usually technical) subject. A 2/3 majority of the Collaboration Board is required for approval.
Research topic assignments are the responsibility of the students and faculty supervisors. Discussions among faculty supervisors and Collaboration Board members are encouraged to avoid serious overlaps in subject matter and/or analysis methodology. The spokesperson maintains a list of completed and current theses. Texts of theses are posted to the IceCube private www site and may be posted at the institution www site. Titles and author names are posted on the official IceCube www site.
This document will be reviewed for proposed amendments as necessary. Any member of the collaboration may bring such proposals to the Collaboration Board's attention. Proposed amendments to this charter will be considered during regular meetings of the Collaboration Board. A 2/3 majority of the Collaboration Board is necessary to pass an amendment.
This document sets forth the plan for the organization and implementation of the physics benchmarking and verification (i.e. data analysis) for the IceCube project. The data analysis is a level 3 project task placed under WBS 1.5.1. There are four 1.5.1 Level 4 subtasks that are listed here.
Planning documentation is composed of this document in its entirety, which lays out the plan for data analysis of IceCube data. This plan will be reviewed by the IceCube project and the IceCube collaboration and once approved will be implemented. Approval and/or modification requires the data analysis plan to be accepted by:
This document should not conflict with the IceCube collaboration governance document. If there are any conflicts the collaboration governance document takes precedent.
Analysis coordination has two level 5 tasks that are:
Although the two tasks are at equal WBS levels the analysis coordinator has project and collaboration authority over the working groups as laid out in this document.
a) Selection of Analysis Coordinator
The procedure for selecting the Analysis Coordinator, as laid out in the collaboration governance document, is by appointment from the spokesperson or persons with concurrence of the collaboration board.
b) Term of Analysis Coordinator
The term of the Analysis coordinator will be two years. The current Analysis Coordinator may be nominated to remain as Analysis Coordinator.
c) Responsibilities of Analysis Coordinator
The responsibilities of the analysis coordinator are the overall organization and oversight of the working groups and physics analysis of the IceCube data. Specifically the Analysis Coordinator will:
From the list above it is clear that the Analysis Coordinator has general oversight over all WBS 1.5.1 level 4 tasks. During the term of the Analysis Coordinator he/she will act as the WBS 1.5.1 Level 3 lead.
As level 3 lead for WBS 1.5.1 the Analysis Coordinator will have control of the project resources necessary to directly and successfully execute the responsibilities of Analysis Coordinator. As a project level 3 the Analysis Coordinator will also acquire the additional responsibilities as set forth by the project office for all level 3 leads.
a) Preliminary list of working groups
Working groups are organized a) according to event topologies and the related filter and reconstruction methods and b) according to physics topics. Topology-driven groups can be, for instance:
with the physics topics such as AGN, GRB, WIMPs etc... as subcategories in each working group with the same physics topic across groups. A possible grouping according to physics topics would be:
with detector and reconstruction methods as tools to be developed across different working groups. Definition of groups will be kept dynamically, with the list above representing the 2006 status.
b) Selection of Working Groups & Group Leaders
The Analysis Coordinator will coordinate and implement the analysis effort for the IceCube detector in order for it to accomplish its scientific mission. The analysis coordinator and WBS 1.5 level 2, with input from the entire collaboration, will determine the physics benchmarks and processes and organize physics working groups to ensure that these processes are measured. The Analysis Coordinator, spokesperson and PI will select the working group leaders with input from the IceCube collaboration and IceCube project office. The position of working group leader is not a fixed length appointment, but should normally be no shorter then a year and is reviewed yearly by the Analysis Coordinator.
c) Responsibilities at Working Group Level
The physics working group leaders have direct responsibility for organizing the individual data analyses of the IceCube detector. They will:
Organization of people within a physics working group should generally be organized by the working group leader, with a mailing list established. However, all physics working group activity is open to the entire collaboration at any time. Regular meeting times and activities should be established whenever possible to encourage all who are interested to be able to plan on participation. The working groups are encouraged to schedule regular biweekly teleconferences and/or videoconferences.
Internal review is the process by which the IceCube collaboration will assure uniform and high standards for the publication and communication of physics results to the community. There are two levels of approval for results:
a) Approval of preliminary results for talks
For approval of preliminary results to be disseminated to the community at scientific talks and conferences the following must happen:
Upon approval the result becomes an official preliminary result. The result will be placed in a common collaboration area on the IceCube web page by the physics working group, and the result is available for use in talks and conferences by any collaboration member.
b) Publication of papers
The publication of a result in a paper is initiated within a physics working group. The group leaders will appoint a working group internal committee of experts to review and resolve physics issues to the satisfaction of the committee and group leaders. The results to be published and supporting memo must then be approved by the collaboration as described above. If approved the following sequence is applied:
c) Unusual or unplanned physics topics
In the event of an analysis that does not fall within a working group, the Analysis Coordinator will select an expert committee directly and act as the working group leader and Analysis Coordinator in the processes described above for approval.
The policy on talks and presentations, and on the speakers committee is properly a collaboration function, which is set forth in the IceCube collaboration governance document.