word usage - What does this mean: ^^

I told my (very young and friendly) professor via email that I found a potentially great, reputable paper to base my research on, and she responded with, "that would be great ^^"

Please let me know what his response is."

What does ^^ mean?

Is that something that shows...excitement / curiosity ...or more like it shows doubt / second-guessing?

Not sure whether this is relevant, but she is French, and we are at an American university.

My guess would be that somehow ^^ is the equivalent of this !! but I've never seen this before at all...

Thanks,

Answer

It's an emoticon. Based on the context, it shows your professor's positive reaction to your email.

Usually, the variants are:

^^, or (^^,)

^__^ or (^_^)

^-^ . . .

^.^ . . .