Status of Neutrino Astronomy - a mini-review on neutrino telescopes

Abstract

With the completion of the first cubic-kilometer class neutrino telescopes, IceCube, the race for the discovery of the first cosmic high-energy neutrino sources enters into a new phase. The usage of neutrinos as cosmic messengers has the potential to significantly enhance and extend our knowledge on Galactic and extragalactic sources of the high-energy universe. This article gives a short review on the status of neutrino telescopes and their sensitivities concentrating on point-like sources. It discusses the current upper limits on neutrino emissions and their implications for models of different source classes.