LOWERING ICECUBE'S ENERGY THRESHOLD FOR POINT SOURCE SEARCHES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY
Observation of a point source of astrophysical neutrinos would be a "smoking gun" signature of a cosmic-ray accelerator. While IceCube has recently discovered a diffuse flux of astrophysical neutrinos, no localized point source has been observed. Previous IceCube searches for point sources...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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IOP Publishing
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106132 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6393-0438 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6243-1453 |
| _version_ | 1826192829534175232 |
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| author | Arguelles Delgado, Carlos A Collins, G. H. Conrad, Janet Marie Jones, Benjamin James Poyner |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Arguelles Delgado, Carlos A Collins, G. H. Conrad, Janet Marie Jones, Benjamin James Poyner |
| author_sort | Arguelles Delgado, Carlos A |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Observation of a point source of astrophysical neutrinos would be a "smoking gun" signature of a cosmic-ray accelerator. While IceCube has recently discovered a diffuse flux of astrophysical neutrinos, no localized point source has been observed. Previous IceCube searches for point sources in the southern sky were restricted by either an energy threshold above a few hundred TeV or poor neutrino angular resolution. Here we present a search for southern sky point sources with greatly improved sensitivities to neutrinos with energies below 100 TeV. By selecting charged-current ν[subscript μ] interacting inside the detector, we reduce the atmospheric background while retaining efficiency for astrophysical neutrino-induced events reconstructed with sub-degree angular resolution. The new event sample covers three years of detector data and leads to a factor of 10 improvement in sensitivity to point sources emitting below 100 TeV in the southern sky. No statistically significant evidence of point sources was found, and upper limits are set on neutrino emission from individual sources. A posteriori analysis of the highest-energy (~100 TeV) starting event in the sample found that this event alone represents a 2.8σ deviation from the hypothesis that the data consists only of atmospheric background. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:29:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/106132 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:29:49Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1061322022-09-30T14:48:57Z LOWERING ICECUBE'S ENERGY THRESHOLD FOR POINT SOURCE SEARCHES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY Arguelles Delgado, Carlos A Collins, G. H. Conrad, Janet Marie Jones, Benjamin James Poyner Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science Arguelles Delgado, Carlos A Collins, G. H. Conrad, Janet Marie Jones, Benjamin James Poyner Observation of a point source of astrophysical neutrinos would be a "smoking gun" signature of a cosmic-ray accelerator. While IceCube has recently discovered a diffuse flux of astrophysical neutrinos, no localized point source has been observed. Previous IceCube searches for point sources in the southern sky were restricted by either an energy threshold above a few hundred TeV or poor neutrino angular resolution. Here we present a search for southern sky point sources with greatly improved sensitivities to neutrinos with energies below 100 TeV. By selecting charged-current ν[subscript μ] interacting inside the detector, we reduce the atmospheric background while retaining efficiency for astrophysical neutrino-induced events reconstructed with sub-degree angular resolution. The new event sample covers three years of detector data and leads to a factor of 10 improvement in sensitivity to point sources emitting below 100 TeV in the southern sky. No statistically significant evidence of point sources was found, and upper limits are set on neutrino emission from individual sources. A posteriori analysis of the highest-energy (~100 TeV) starting event in the sample found that this event alone represents a 2.8σ deviation from the hypothesis that the data consists only of atmospheric background. National Science Foundation (U.S.). Division of Polar Programs National Science Foundation (U.S.). Division of Physics University of Wisconsin. Alumni Research Foundation United States. Dept. of Energy University of Wisconsin. Grid Laboratory of Wisconsin National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (U.S.) Louisiana Optical Network Initiative 2016-12-22T19:41:14Z 2016-12-22T19:41:14Z 2016-06 2016-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-8213 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106132 Aartsen, M. G. et al. “LOWERING ICECUBE’S ENERGY THRESHOLD FOR POINT SOURCE SEARCHES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY.” The Astrophysical Journal 824.2 (2016): L28. © Copyright 2016 IOP Publishing https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6393-0438 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6243-1453 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/2041-8205/824/2/l28 Astrophysical Journal. Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf IOP Publishing American Astronomical Society |
| spellingShingle | Arguelles Delgado, Carlos A Collins, G. H. Conrad, Janet Marie Jones, Benjamin James Poyner LOWERING ICECUBE'S ENERGY THRESHOLD FOR POINT SOURCE SEARCHES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY |
| title | LOWERING ICECUBE'S ENERGY THRESHOLD FOR POINT SOURCE SEARCHES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY |
| title_full | LOWERING ICECUBE'S ENERGY THRESHOLD FOR POINT SOURCE SEARCHES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY |
| title_fullStr | LOWERING ICECUBE'S ENERGY THRESHOLD FOR POINT SOURCE SEARCHES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY |
| title_full_unstemmed | LOWERING ICECUBE'S ENERGY THRESHOLD FOR POINT SOURCE SEARCHES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY |
| title_short | LOWERING ICECUBE'S ENERGY THRESHOLD FOR POINT SOURCE SEARCHES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY |
| title_sort | lowering icecube s energy threshold for point source searches in the southern sky |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106132 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6393-0438 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6243-1453 |
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