High-energy neutrino astronomy

With the completion of the first-generation Lake Baikal and AMANDA detectors 1998 represents a milestone in neutrino astronomy. Neutrino signals from the Lake Baikal detector bode well for the flurry of R&D activities leading to the deployment of similar instruments in the Mediterranean. The AMANDA telescope announced first light, neutrinos actually, and produced results that validate plans for commissioning a kilometer-scale detector in Antarctic ice. Although high-energy neutrino astronomy is a multidisciplinary science, gamma-ray bursts have, with supermassive black holes, become the theoretical focus since recent astronomical observations revealed their potential as cosmic particle accelerators. This spotlight is shared with investigations of the potential of high-energy telescopes to observe oscillating neutrinos. The Superkamiokande results have boosted atmospheric neutrinos from a calibration tool and a background for doing astronomy, to an opportunity to confirm the evidence for neutrino mass. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.