  IceCube was completed in December 2010. It forms a lattice of 5160
photomultiplier tubes that monitor a volume of ~ 1 cubic km in the deep
Antarctic ice for particle induced photons. The telescope was designed to
detect neutrinos with energies greater than 100 GeV. Owing to subfreezing ice
temperatures, the photomultiplier dark noise rates are particularly low. Hence
IceCube can also detect large numbers of MeV neutrinos by observing a
collective rise in all photomultiplier rates on top of the dark noise. With 2
ms timing resolution, IceCube can track subtle features in the temporal
development of the supernova neutrino burst. For a supernova at the galactic
center, its sensitivity matches that of a background-free megaton-scale
supernova search experiment. The sensitivity decreases to 20 standard
deviations at the galactic edge (30 kpc) and 6 standard deviations at the Large
Magellanic Cloud (50 kpc). IceCube is sending triggers from potential
supernovae to the Supernova Early Warning System. The sensitivity to neutrino
properties such as the neutrino hierarchy is discussed and simulations of
tantalizing signatures, such as the formation of a quark star or a black hole
as well as the characteristics of shock waves are presented. All results are
preliminary.
