Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data
Cosmic-ray interactions with the solar atmosphere are expected to produce particle showers which in turn produce neutrinos from weak decays of mesons. These solar atmospheric neutrinos (SAνs) have never been observed experimentally. A detection would be an important step in understanding cosmic-ray...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142027 |
| _version_ | 1826190738167169024 |
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| author | Conrad, Janet |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Conrad, Janet |
| author_sort | Conrad, Janet |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Cosmic-ray interactions with the solar atmosphere are expected to produce particle showers which in turn produce neutrinos from weak decays of mesons. These solar atmospheric neutrinos (SAνs) have never been observed experimentally. A detection would be an important step in understanding cosmic-ray propagation in the inner solar system and the dynamics of solar magnetic fields. SAνs also represent an irreducible background to solar dark matter searches and a detection would allow precise characterization of this background. Here, we present the first experimental search based on seven years of data collected from May 2010 to May 2017 in the austral winter with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. An unbinned likelihood analysis is performed for events reconstructed within 5 degrees of the center of the Sun. No evidence for a SAν flux is observed. After inclusion of systematic uncertainties, we set a 90% upper limit of 1.02+0.20-0.18·10-13 GeV-1cm-2s-1 at 1 TeV. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:44:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/142027 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:44:55Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1420272023-03-28T19:33:07Z Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data Conrad, Janet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Cosmic-ray interactions with the solar atmosphere are expected to produce particle showers which in turn produce neutrinos from weak decays of mesons. These solar atmospheric neutrinos (SAνs) have never been observed experimentally. A detection would be an important step in understanding cosmic-ray propagation in the inner solar system and the dynamics of solar magnetic fields. SAνs also represent an irreducible background to solar dark matter searches and a detection would allow precise characterization of this background. Here, we present the first experimental search based on seven years of data collected from May 2010 to May 2017 in the austral winter with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. An unbinned likelihood analysis is performed for events reconstructed within 5 degrees of the center of the Sun. No evidence for a SAν flux is observed. After inclusion of systematic uncertainties, we set a 90% upper limit of 1.02+0.20-0.18·10-13 GeV-1cm-2s-1 at 1 TeV. 2022-04-21T18:13:52Z 2022-04-21T18:13:52Z 2021 2022-04-21T18:08:28Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142027 Conrad, Janet. 2021. "Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data." Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2021 (02). en 10.1088/1475-7516/2021/02/025 Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf IOP Publishing arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Conrad, Janet Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data |
| title | Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data |
| title_full | Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data |
| title_fullStr | Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data |
| title_full_unstemmed | Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data |
| title_short | Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data |
| title_sort | searches for neutrinos from cosmic ray interactions in the sun using seven years of icecube data |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142027 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT conradjanet searchesforneutrinosfromcosmicrayinteractionsinthesunusingsevenyearsoficecubedata |