Status and Future Plans for IceAct at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

The IceAct telescopes are imaging air-Cherenkov telescopes serving as a sub-detector for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. These telescopes are designed to withstand the extreme environmental conditions at the geographic South Pole. Since 2019, the first two IceAct telescopes have been operating in a stereoscopic configuration within IceTop, the surface detector of IceCube, resulting in three years of consistent data collection.

IceAct is now undergoing an upgrade to a "fly’s eye" configuration, as a prototype for operations with IceCube-Gen2. In this IceAct-Fly’s Eye upgrade, each original upward-facing telescope will be complemented by six additional telescopes, angled off the zenith by ~12°, expanding the field of view from ~12° to ~36°. Towards this upgrade, a third IceAct telescope and a new holding structure were installed in 2023 and is currently preparing for data acquisition.

Marquette University, the only lab in the USA assembling IceAct telescopes for the IceCube experiment, successfully assembled and shipped one telescope this past year and plans to build several more for the Gen2 upgrade.

In this presentation, we will review the performance and operations of the IceAct telescopes since 2019, outline the plans for the IceAct-Fly’sEye upgrade, and share new studies on air shower parameter reconstruction using simulation data from an IceAct Fly’sEye model in the low-energy range (3–600 TeV).