Search for steady point-like sources in the astrophysical muon neutrino flux with 8 years of IceCube data

Aartsen MG, Ackermann M, Adams J, Aguilar JA, Ahlers M, Ahrens M, Altmann D, Andeen K, Anderson T, Ansseau I, Anton G, Arguelles C, Auffenberg J, Axani S, Backes P, Bagherpour H, Bai X, Barbano A, Barron JP, Barwick SW, Baum V, Bay R, Beatty JJ, Tjus JB, Becker KH, Benzvi S, Berley D, Bernardini E, Besson DZ, Binder G, Bindig D, Blaufuss E, Blot S, Bohm C, Boerner M, Bos F, Boeser S, Botner O, Bourbeau E, Bourbeau J, Bradascio F, Braun J, Bretz HP, Bron S, Brostean-Kaiser J, Burgman A, Busse RS, Carver T, Chen C, Cheung E, Chirkin D, Clark K, Classen L, Collin GH, Conrad JM, Coppin P, Correa P, Cowen DF, Cross R, Dave P, Day M, De Andre JPAM, De Clercq C, Delaunay JJ, Dembinski H, Deoskar K, De Ridder S, Desiati P, De Vries KD, De Wasseige G, De With M, Deyoung T, Diaz-Velez JC, Dujmovic H, Dunkman M, Dvorak E, Eberhardt B, Ehrhardt T, Eichmann B, Eller P, Evenson PA, Fahey S, Fazely AR, Felde J, Filimonov K, Finley C, Franckowiak A, Friedman E, Fritz A, Gaisser TK, Gallagher J, Ganster E, Garrappa S, Gerhardt L, Ghorbani K, Giang W, Glauch T, Glüsenkamp T, Goldschmidt A, Gonzalez JG, Grant D, Griffith Z, Haack C, Hallgren A, Halve L, Halzen F, Hanson K, Hebecker D, Heereman D, Helbing K, Hellauer R, Hickford S, Hignight J, Hill GC, Hoffman KD, Hoffmann R, Hoinka T, Hokanson-Fasig B, Hoshina K, Huang F, Huber M, Hultqvist K, Huennefeld M, Hussain R, In S, Iovine N, Ishihara A, Jacobi E, Japaridze GS, Jeong M, Jero K, Jones BJP, Kalaczynski P, Kang W, Kappes A, Kappesser D, Karg T, Karle A, Katz U, Kauer M, Keivani A, Kelley JL, Kheirandish A, Kim J, Kintscher T, Kiryluk J, Kittler T, Klein SR, Koirala R, Kolanoski H, Koepke L, Kopper C, Kopper S, Koskinen DJ, Kowalski M, Krings K, Kroll M, Krueckl G, Kunwar S, Kurahashi N, Kyriacou A, Labare M, Lanfranchi JL, Larson MJ, Lauber F, Leonard K, Leuermann M, Liu QR, Lohfink E, Mariscal CJL, Lu L, Luenemann J, Luszczak W, Madsen J, Maggi G, Mahn KBM, Makino Y, Mancina S, Maris IC, Maruyama R, Mase K, Maunu R, Meagher K, Medici M, Meier M, Menne T, Merino G, Meures T, Miarecki S, Micallef J, Momente G, Montaruli T, Moore RW, Moulai M, Nagai R, Nahnhauer R, Nakarmi P, Naumann U, Neer G, Niederhausen H, Nowicki SC, Nygren DR, Pollmann AO, Olivas A, O'Murchadha A, O'Sullivan E, Palczewski T, Pandya H, Pankova DV, Peiffer P, De Los Heros CP, Pieloth D, Pinat E, Pizzuto A, Plum M, Price PB, Przybylski GT, Raab C, Rameez M, Rauch L, Rawlins K, Rea IC, Reimann R, Relethford B, Renzi G, Resconi E, Rhode W, Richman M, Robertson S, Rongen M, Rott C, Ruhe T, Ryckbosch D, Rysewyk D, Safa I, Herrera SES, Sandrock A, Sandroos J, Santander M, Sarkar S, Sarkar S, Satalecka K, Schaufel M, Schlunder P, Schmidt T, Schneider A, Schneider J, Schoeneberg S, Schumacher L, Sclafani S, Seckel D, Seunarine S, Soedingrekso J, Soldin D, Song M, Spiczak GM, Spiering C, Stachurska J, Stamatikos M, Stanev T, Stasik A, Stein R, Stettner J, Steuer A, Stezelberger T, Stokstad RG, Stoel A, Strotjohann NL, Stuttard T, Sullivan GW, Sutherland M, Taboada I, Tenholt F, Ter-Antonyan S, Terliuk A, Tilav S, Tobin MN, Toennis C, Toscano S, Tosi D, Tselengidou M, Tung CF, Turcati A, Turcotte R, Turley CF, Ty B, Unger E, Elorrieta MAU, Usner M, Vandenbroucke J, Van Driessche W, Van Eijk D, Van Eijndhoven N, Vanheule S, Van Santen J, Vraeghe M, Walck C, Wallace A, Wallraff M, Wandler FD, Wandkowsky N, Watson TB, Weaver C, Weiss MJ, Wendt C, Werthebach J, Westerhoff S, Whelan BJ, Whitehorn N, Wiebe K, Wiebusch CH, Wille L, Williams DR, Wills L, Wolf M, Wood J, Wood TR, Woolsey E, Woschnagg K, Wrede G, Xu DL, Xu XW, Xu Y, Yanez JP, Yodh G, Yoshida S, Yuan T (2019)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Book Volume: 79

Journal Issue: 3

DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-6680-0

Abstract

The IceCube Collaboration has observed a high-energy astrophysical neutrino flux and recently found evidence for neutrino emission from the blazar TXS 0506+056. These results open a new window into the high-energy universe. However, the source or sources of most of the observed flux of astrophysical neutrinos remains uncertain. Here, a search for steady point-like neutrino sources is performed using an unbinned likelihood analysis. The method searches for a spatial accumulation of muon-neutrino events using the very high-statistics sample of about 497,000 neutrinos recorded by IceCube between 2009 and 2017. The median angular resolution is approximate to 1 degrees at 1 TeV and improves to approximate to 0.3 degrees for neutrinos with an energy of 1 PeV. Compared to previous analyses, this search is optimized for point-like neutrino emission with the same flux-characteristics as the observed astrophysical muon-neutrino flux and introduces an improved event-reconstruction and parametrization of the background. The result is an improvement in sensitivity to the muon-neutrino flux compared to the previous analysis of approximate to 35% assuming an E-2 spectrum. The sensitivity on the muon-neutrino flux is at a level of E2dN/dE=310-13s-1. No new evidence for neutrino sources is found in a full sky scan and in an a priori candidate source list that is motivated by gamma-ray observations. Furthermore, no significant excesses above background are found from populations of sub-threshold sources. The implications of the non-observation for potential source classes are discussed.

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How to cite

APA:

Aartsen, M.G., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J.A., Ahlers, M., Ahrens, M.,... Yuan, T. (2019). Search for steady point-like sources in the astrophysical muon neutrino flux with 8 years of IceCube data. European Physical Journal C, 79(3). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-6680-0

MLA:

Aartsen, M. G., et al. "Search for steady point-like sources in the astrophysical muon neutrino flux with 8 years of IceCube data." European Physical Journal C 79.3 (2019).

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