The IceCube high-energy starting event sample: Description and flux characterization with 7.5 years of data
R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams, J. A. Aguilar, M. Ahlers, M. Ahrens, C. Alispach, A. A. Alves, N. M. Amin, K. Andeen, T. Anderson, I. Ansseau, G. Anton, C. A… 展开作者
R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams, J. A. Aguilar, M. Ahlers, M. Ahrens, C. Alispach, A. A. Alves, N. M. Amin, K. Andeen, T. Anderson, I. Ansseau, G. Anton, C. Argüelles, S. Axani, X. Bai, A. Balagopal V., A. Barbano, S. W. Barwick, B. Bastian, V. Basu, V. Baum, S. Baur, R. Bay, J. J. Beatty, K. -H. Becker, J. Becker Tjus, C. Bellenghi, S. BenZvi, D. Berley, E. Bernardini, D. Z. Besson, G. Binder, D. Bindig, E. Blaufuss, S. Blot, S. Böser, O. Botner, J. Böttcher, E. Bourbeau, J. Bourbeau, F. Bradascio, J. Braun, S. Bron, J. Brostean-Kaiser, A. Burgman, R. S. Busse, M. A. Campana, C. Chen, D. Chirkin, S. Choi, B. A. Clark, K. Clark, L. Classen, A. Coleman, G. H. Collin, J. M. Conrad, P. Coppin, P. Correa, D. F. Cowen, R. Cross, P. Dave, C. De Clercq, J. J. DeLaunay, H. Dembinski, K. Deoskar, S. De Ridder, A. Desai, P. Desiati, K. D. de Vries, G. de Wasseige, M. de With, T. DeYoung, S. Dharani, A. Diaz, J. C. Díaz-Vélez, H. Dujmovic, M. Dunkman, M. A. DuVernois, E. Dvorak, T. Ehrhardt, P. Eller, R. Engel, J. Evans, P. A. Evenson, S. Fahey, A. R. Fazely, S. Fiedlschuster, A. T. Fienberg, K. Filimonov, C. Finley, L. Fischer, D. Fox, A. Franckowiak, E. Friedman, A. Fritz, P. Fürst, T. K. Gaisser, J. Gallagher, E. Ganster, S. Garrappa, L. Gerhardt, A. Ghadimi, T. Glauch, T. Glüsenkamp, A. Goldschmidt, J. G. Gonzalez, S. Goswami, D. Grant, T. Grégoire, Z. Griffith, S. Griswold, M. Gündüz, C. Haack, A. Hallgren, R. Halliday, L. Halve, F. Halzen, M. Ha Minh, K. Hanson, J. Hardin, A. Haungs, S. Hauser, D. Hebecker, K. Helbing, F. Henningsen, S. Hickford, J. Hignight, C. Hill, G. C. Hill, K. D. Hoffman, R. Hoffmann, T. Hoinka, B. Hokanson-Fasig, K. Hoshina, F. Huang, M. Huber, T. Huber, K. Hultqvist, M. Hünnefeld, R. Hussain, S. In, N. Iovine, A. Ishihara, M. Jansson, G. S. Japaridze, M. Jeong, B. J. P. Jones, R. Joppe, D. Kang, W. Kang, X. Kang, A. Kappes, D. Kappesser, T. Karg, M. Karl, A. Karle, T. Katori, U. Katz, M. Kauer, M. Kellermann, J. L. Kelley, A. Kheirandish, J. Kim, K. Kin, T. Kintscher, J. Kiryluk, S. R. Klein, R. Koirala, H. Kolanoski, L. Köpke, C. Kopper, S. Kopper, D. J. Koskinen, P. Koundal, M. Kovacevich, M. Kowalski, K. Krings, G. Krückl, N. Kulacz, N. Kurahashi, A. Kyriacou, C. Lagunas Gualda, J. L. Lanfranchi, M. J. Larson, F. Lauber, J. P. Lazar, K. Leonard, A. Leszczyńska, Y. Li, Q. R. Liu, E. Lohfink, C. J. Lozano Mariscal, L. Lu, F. Lucarelli, A. Ludwig, W. Luszczak, Y. Lyu, W. Y. Ma, J. Madsen, K. B. M. Mahn, Y. Makino, P. Mallik, S. Mancina, S. Mandalia, I. C. Mariş, R. Maruyama, K. Mase, F. McNally, K. Meagher, A. Medina, M. Meier, S. Meighen-Berger, J. Merz, J. Micallef, D. Mockler, G. Momenté, T. Montaruli, R. W. Moore, R. Morse, M. Moulai, R. Naab, R. Nagai, U. Naumann, J. Necker, G. Neer, L. V. Nguyen, H. Niederhausen, M. U. Nisa, S. C. Nowicki, D. R. Nygren, A. Obertacke Pollmann, M. Oehler, A. Olivas, E. O'Sullivan, H. Pandya, D. V. Pankova, N. Park, G. K. Parker, E. N. Paudel, P. Peiffer, C. Pérez de los Heros, S. Philippen, D. Pieloth, S. Pieper, A. Pizzuto, M. Plum, Y. Popovych, A. Porcelli, M. Prado Rodriguez, P. B. Price, G. T. Przybylski, C. Raab, A. Raissi, M. Rameez, K. Rawlins, I. C. Rea, A. Rehman, R. Reimann, M. Renschler, G. Renzi, E. Resconi, S. Reusch, W. Rhode, M. Richman, B. Riedel, S. Robertson, G. Roellinghoff, M. Rongen, C. Rott, T. Ruhe, D. Ryckbosch, D. Rysewyk Cantu, I. Safa, S. E. Sanchez Herrera, A. Sandrock, J. Sandroos, M. Santander, S. Sarkar, S. Sarkar, K. Satalecka, M. Scharf, M. Schaufel, H. Schieler, P. Schlunder, T. Schmidt, A. Schneider, J. Schneider, F. G. Schröder, L. Schumacher, S. Sclafani, D. Seckel, S. Seunarine, S. Shefali, M. Silva, B. Smithers, R. Snihur, J. Soedingrekso, D. Soldin, G. M. Spiczak, C. Spiering, J. Stachurska, M. Stamatikos, T. Stanev, R. Stein, J. Stettner, A. Steuer, T. Stezelberger, R. G. Stokstad, N. L. Strotjohann, T. Stuttard, G. W. Sullivan, I. Taboada, F. Tenholt, S. Ter-Antonyan, S. Tilav, F. Tischbein, K. Tollefson, L. Tomankova, C. Tönnis, S. Toscano, D. Tosi, A. Trettin, M. Tselengidou, C. F. Tung, A. Turcati, R. Turcotte, C. F. Turley, J. P. Twagirayezu, B. Ty, E. Unger, M. A. Unland Elorrieta, J. Vandenbroucke, D. van Eijk, N. van Eijndhoven, D. Vannerom, J. van Santen, S. Verpoest, M. Vraeghe, C. Walck, A. Wallace, N. Wandkowsky, T. B. Watson, C. Weaver, A. Weindl, M. J. Weiss, J. Weldert, C. Wendt, J. Werthebach, M. Weyrauch, B. J. Whelan, N. Whitehorn, K. Wiebe, C. H. Wiebusch, D. R. Williams, M. Wolf, T. R. Wood, K. Woschnagg, G. Wrede, J. Wulff, X. W. Xu, Y. Xu, J. P. Yanez, S. Yoshida, T. Yuan, Z. Zhang
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57 pages, 33 figures, 14 tables, additionally this work is accompanied by papers titled "Measurement of Astrophysical Tau Neutrinos in IceCube's High-Energy Starting Events" and "Measurement of the high-energy all-flavor neutrino-nucleon cross section with IceCube"
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has established the existence of a high-energy all-sky neutrino flux of astrophysical origin. This discovery was made using events interacting within a fiducial region of the detector surrounded by an active veto and with reconstructed energy above 60 TeV, commonly known as the high-energy starting event sample, or HESE. We revisit the analysis of the HESE sample with an additional 4.5 years of data, newer glacial ice models, and improved systematics treatment. This paper describes the sample in detail, reports on the latest astrophysical neutrino flux measurements, and presents a source search for astrophysical neutrinos. We give the compatibility of these observations with specific isotropic flux models proposed in the literature as well as generic power-law-like scenarios. Assuming $ν_e:ν_μ:ν_τ=1:1:1$, and an equal flux of neutrinos and antineutrinos, we find that the astrophysical neutrino spectrum is compatible with an unbroken power law, with a preferred spectral index of ${2.87}^{+0.20}_{-0.19}$ for the $68.3\%$ confidence interval.
Here we outline the main highlights from the 7 year High Energy Starting Events (HESE) event sample. The next new physics search using astrophysical neutrino flavor data is described, where we reach the Planck scale for the first time.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, which detects Cherenkov light from charged particles produced in neutrino interactions, firmly established the existence of an astrophysical high-energy neutrino component. Here I present IceCube's High-Energy Starting Event sample and the new results obtained with a livetime of about 7.5 years. I will focus on the new measurement of the flavor composition performed using this sample. IceCube is directly sensitive to each neutrino flavor via the single cascade, track and double cascade event topologies, the latter being the topology produced …
We perform the first statistical combined analysis of the diffuse neutrino flux observed by ANTARES (nine-year) and IceCube (six-year) by assuming a single astrophysical power-law flux. The combined analysis reduces by a few percent the best-fit values for the flux normalization and the spectral index. Both data samples show an excess in the same energy range (40--200 TeV), suggesting the presence of a second component. We perform a goodness-of-fit test to scrutinize the null assumption of a single power-law, scanning different values for the spectral index. The addition of the ANTARES data re…
The IceCube neutrino observatory has established the existence of an astrophysical diffuse neutrino component above $100$ TeV. This discovery was made using the high-energy starting event sample, which uses the outer layer of instrumented volume as a veto to significantly reduce atmospheric background. We present the latest astrophysical neutrino flux measurement using high-energy starting events. This latest iteration of the analysis extends the sample by $1.5$ years for a total of $7.5$ years, updates the event properties with newer models of light transport in the glacial ice, and has an im…
IceCube measures the diffuse neutrino flux across several neutrino flavors and energy ranges. ESTES focuses on the measurement of the diffuse neutrino flux using high purity astrophysical muon neutrinos with energies above 1 TeV. We use the Enhanced Starting Track Event Selection dataset which selects for tracks starting within the IceCube fiducial volume. We employ a machine learning algorithm to help differentiate between tracks from atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos. This produces a high purity diffuse neutrino sample that can provide valuable insight into the properties of the atmosp…
IceCube has measured a diffuse astrophysical flux of TeV-PeV neutrinos. The most plausible sources are unique high energy cosmic ray accelerators like hypernova remnants (HNRs) and remnants from gamma ray bursts in star-burst galaxies, which can produce primary cosmic rays with the required energies and abundance. In this case, however, ordinary supernova remnants (SNRs), which are far more abundant than HNRs, produce a comparable or larger neutrino flux in the ranges up to 100-150 TeV energies, implying a spectral break in the IceCube signal around these energies. The SNRs contribution in the…
In ten years of observations, the IceCube neutrino observatory has revealed a neutrino sky in tension with previous expectations for neutrino point source emissions. Astrophysical objects associated with hadronic processes might act as production sites for neutrinos, observed as point sources at Earth. Instead, a nearly isotropic flux of astrophysical neutrinos is observed up to PeV energies, prompting a reassessment of the assumed transport and production physics. This work applies a new physical explanation for neutrino production from populations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and starburs…
Different types of core-collapse supernovae (SNe) have been considered as candidate sources of high-energy cosmic neutrinos. Stripped-envelope SNe, including energetic events like hypernovae and super-luminous SNe, are of particular interest. They may harbor relativistic jets, which are capable of explaining the diversity among gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), low-luminosity GRBs, ultra-long GRBs, and broadline Type Ib/c SNe. Using the six-year IceCube data on high-energy starting events (HESEs), we perform an unbinned maximum likelihood analysis to search for spatial and temporal coincidences with 22…
IceCube has detected many TeV--PeV neutrinos, but their astrophysical origins remain largely unknown. Motivated by the observed late-time X-ray/optical bumps in some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), we examine the correlation between IceCube neutrinos and GRBs allowing delayed neutrinos $\sim$days after the prompt gamma rays. Although we have not found any definitive correlation, up to $\sim$10\% of the events observed so far at IceCube may have been neutrinos produced by the late-time GRB activities at $\sim$1 day. Assuming a connection between some IceCube events and the late GRB bumps, we show in a…
The origin of the astrophysical neutrino flux reported by the IceCube Collaboration remains an open question. In this study, we use three years of publicly available IceCube data to search for evidence of neutrino emission from the blazars and non-blazar Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) contained the Fermi 4LAC catalog. We find no evidence that these sources produce high-energy neutrinos, and conclude that blazars can produce no more than 15% of IceCube's observed flux. The constraint we derive on the contribution from non-blazar AGN, which are less luminous and more numerous than blazars, is sign…
The observation of very high energy neutrino events at IceCube has grasped a lot of attention in the fields of both astrophysics and particle physics. It has been speculated that these high energy neutrinos might originate either from purely conventional astrophysical sources or from the late decay of a super heavy (PeV scale) dark matter (DM) particle. In order for decaying DM to be a dominant source of the IceCube high-energy neutrinos, it would require an unusually suppressed value of the coupling of DM to neutrinos. We attempt to explain this small coupling in the context of an $R$-parity …
After four years of data taking, the IceCube neutrino telescope has detected 54 high-energy starting events (HESE, or contained-vertex events) with deposited energies above 20TeV. They represent the first ever detection of high-energy extraterrestrial neutrinos and therefore, the first step in neutrino astronomy. In order to study the energy, flavor and isotropy of the astrophysical neutrino flux arriving at Earth, we perform different analyses of two different deposited energy intervals, [10 TeV $-$ 10 PeV] and [60 TeV $-$ 10 PeV]. We first consider an isotropic unbroken power-law spectrum an…
We calculate the atmospheric neutrino fluxes in the energy range $100$ GeV -- $10$ PeV with the use of several known hadronic models and a few parametrizations of the cosmic ray spectra which take into account the knee. The calculations are compared with the atmospheric neutrino measurements by Frejus, AMANDA, IceCube and ANTARES. An analytic description is presented for the conventional ($ν_μ+\barν_μ$) and ($ν_e+\barν_e$) energy spectra, averaged over zenith angles, which can be used to obtain test data of the neutrino event reconstruction in neutrino telescopes. The sum of the calculated atm…
We present an argument that radio galaxies (active galaxies with mis-aligned jets) are likely to be the primary sources of the high-energy astrophysical neutrinos observed by IceCube. In particular, if the gamma-ray emission observed from radio galaxies is generated through the interactions of cosmic-ray protons with gas, these interactions can also produce a population of neutrinos with a flux and spectral shape similar to that measured by IceCube. We present a simple physical model in which high-energy cosmic rays are confined within the volumes of radio galaxies, where they interact with ga…
We present a search based on a time dependent neutrino flux prediction from the X-ray binary LS I +61 303. Results from data taken with the 22 and 40 strings of IceCube are compatible with background fluctuations.
We discuss the spectrum of the different components in the astrophysical neutrino flux reaching the Earth and the possible contribution of each component to the high-energy IceCube data. We show that the diffuse flux from cosmic ray interactions with gas in our galaxy implies just 2 events among the 54 event sample. We argue that the neutrino flux from cosmic ray interactions in the intergalactic (intracluster) space depends critically on the transport parameter $δ$ describing the energy dependence in the diffusion coefficient of galactic cosmic rays. Our analysis motivates a E^{-2.1} neutrino…
High energy neutrinos have been detected by IceCube, but their origin remains a mystery. Determining the sources of this flux is a crucial first step towards multi-messenger studies. In this work we systematically compare two classes of sources with the data: Galactic and extragalactic. We assume that the neutrino sources are distributed according to a class of Galactic models. We build a likelihood function on an event by event basis including energy, event topology, absorption, and direction information. We present the probability that each high energy event with deposited energy $E_{\rm dep…
Gamma ray burst (GRB) fireballs provide one of very few astrophysical environments where one can contemplate the acceleration of cosmic rays to energies that exceed 10^20 eV. The assumption that GRBs are the sources of the observed cosmic rays generates a calculable flux of neutrinos produced when the protons interact with fireball photons. With data taken during construction IceCube has already reached a sensitivity to observe neutrinos produced in temporal coincidence with individual GRBs provided that they are the sources of the observed extragalactic cosmic rays. We here point out that the…
Despite the spectacular discovery of an astrophysical neutrino flux by IceCube in 2013, its origin remains a mystery. Whatever its sources, we expect the neutrino flux to be accompanied by a comparable gamma-ray flux. These photons should be degraded in energy by electromagnetic cascades and contribute to the diffuse GeV-TeV flux precisely measured by the Fermi-LAT. Population studies have also permitted to identify the main classes of contributors to this flux, which at the same time have not been associated with major neutrino sources in cross-correlation studies. These considerations allow …
The recent study on the the 6-year up-going muon neutrinos by the IceCube Collaboration and the multi-messenger analyses support the hypothesis of a two-component scenario explaining the diffuse TeV-PeV neutrino flux. Depending on the steepness of the astrophysical power-law, an excess in the IceCube data is shown in the energy range 10-100 TeV (low-energy excess) or at PeV (high-energy excess). In both cases, we characterize a two-component neutrino flux where decaying Dark Matter particles provide a contribution to the IceCube observations.
IceCube analyses which look for an astrophysical neutrino signal in the southern sky face a large background of atmospheric muons and neutrinos created by cosmic ray air showers. By selecting starting events in the southern sky, atmospheric muons and neutrinos with accompanying muons are rejected, producing a sample with high astrophysical neutrino purity at lower energies than northern sky samples. Our new selection method looks for muon tracks from a neutrino interaction with a vertex contained inside the detector volume by using the good pointing resolution of the track morphology to create…
We compute the gamma-ray and neutrino diffuse emission of the Galaxy on the basis of a recently proposed phenomenological model characterized by radially dependent cosmic-ray (CR) transport properties. We show how this model, designed to reproduce both Fermi-LAT gamma-ray data and local CR observables, naturally reproduces the anomalous TeV diffuse emission observed by Milagro in the inner Galactic plane. Above 100 TeV our picture predicts a neutrino flux that is about five (two) times larger than the neutrino flux computed with conventional models in the Galactic Center region (full-sky). Exp…
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic kilometer-sized detector designed to detect neutrinos of astrophysical origin. However, muons created by cosmic rays interacting in the atmosphere pose a significant background for these astrophysical neutrinos particularly in the southern equatorial sky. Identifying neutrino events that start in the detector allows us to reduce the atmospheric muon component while retaining a high rate of starting neutrino events. The method presented today also rejects atmospheric neutrinos if they are accompanied by muons from the same cosmic ray shower, lowering …
We show that the Galactic latitude distribution of IceCube astrophysical neutrino events with energies above 100~TeV is inconsistent with the isotropic model of the astrophysical neutrino flux. Namely, the Galactic latitude distribution of the events shows an excess at low latitudes |b|<10 degrees and a deficit at high Galactic latitude |b|> 50 degrees. We use Monte-Carlo simulations to show that the inconsistency of the isotropic signal model with the data is at > 3 sigma level, after the account of trial factors related to the choice of the low-energy threshold and Galactic latitude binning …
Constraining high-energy neutrinos from tidal disruption events with IceCube high-energy starting events
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）；Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics（汤川理论物理研究所）
High-energy (TeV-PeV) cosmic neutrinos are expected to be produced in extremely energetic astrophysical sources such as active galactic nuclei. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole has recently detected a diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux. While the flux is consistent with all flavors of neutrinos being present, identification of tau neutrinos within the flux is yet to occur. Although tau neutrino production is thought to be low at the source, an equal fraction of neutrinos are expected at Earth due to averaged neutrino oscillations over astronomical distances. Above a few hund…
The recent study on the the 6-year up-going muon neutrinos by the IceCube Collaboration support the hypothesis of a two-component scenario explaining the diffuse TeV-PeV neutrino flux. Once a hard astrophysical power-law is considered, an excess in the IceCube data is shown in the energy range 10-100 TeV (low-energy excess}). By means of a statistical analysis on the neutrino energy spectrum and on the angular distribution of neutrino arrival directions, we characterize a two-component neutrino flux where decaying/annihilating Dark Matter particles provide a contribution to the IceCube observa…
Neutrino events from IceCube have recently been associated with multiple astrophysical sources. Interestingly, these likely detections represent three distinct astrophysical source types: active galactic nuclei (AGN), blazars, and tidal disruption events (TDE). Here we compute the expected contributions of AGNs, blazars and TDEs to the overall cosmic neutrino flux detected by IceCube based on the associated events, IceCube's sensitivity, and the source types' astrophysical properties. We find that, despite being the most commonly identified sources, blazars cannot contribute more than 11% of t…
IceCube has reported the detection of a diffuse TeV-PeV neutrino emission, for which the flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) have been proposed to be the candidate sources. Here we assume that the neutrino flux from FSRQs is proportional to their gamma-ray ones, and obtain the gamma-ray/neutrino flux ratio by the diffuse gamma-ray flux from Fermi-LAT measurement of FSRQs and the diffuse neutrino flux detected by IceCube. We apply this ratio to individual FSRQs and hence predict their neutrino flux. We find that a large fraction of candidate FSRQs from the northern sky in the IceCube point sour…
Understanding the spectral and flavor composition of the astrophysical neutrino flux responsible for the recently observed ultra-high energy events at IceCube is of great importance for both astrophysics and particle physics. We perform a statistical likelihood analysis to the 3-year IceCube data and derive the allowed range of the spectral index and flux normalization for various well-motivated physical flavor compositions at source. While most of the existing analyses so far assume the flavor composition of the neutrinos at an astrophysical source to be (1:2:0), it seems rather unnatural to …
In view of the IceCube's 6-year high-energy starting events (HESE) sample, we revisit the possibility that the updated data may be better explained by a combination of neutrino fluxes from dark matter decay and an isotropic astrophysical power-law than purely by the latter. We find that the combined two-component flux qualitatively improves the fit to the observed data over a purely astrophysical one, and discuss how these updated fits compare against a similar analysis done with the 4-year HESE data. We also update fits involving dark matter decay via multiple channels, without any contributi…
We fit the energy distribution of the IceCube starting events by a model which involves four parameters in the neutrino spectrum, namely three normalizations $n_e,n_μ,n_τ$ and a common power-law index $γ$, with a fixed background simulated by IceCube. It is found that the best fit index is $γ= 2.7$ with $χ^2_{\rm min} = 32.3/24\,{\rm dof}$. As for the two parameter model involving a democratic normalization and an index, the best fit is at $γ= 2.8$ with $χ^2_{\rm min} = 33.9/26\,{\rm dof}$. The flavored model and the democratic model do not have much difference in the quality of the (energy-sp…
The flux of high-energy neutrinos passing through the Earth is attenuated due to their interactions with matter. Their transmission probability is modulated by the neutrino interaction cross section and affects the arrival flux at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a cubic-kilometer neutrino detector embedded in the South Pole ice sheet. We present a measurement of the neutrino-nucleon cross section between 60 TeV--10 PeV using the high-energy starting events (HESE) sample from IceCube with 7.5 years of data.
It is assumed that heavy dark matter particles (HDMs) with a mass of O(TeV) are captured by the Sun. HDMs can decay to relativistic light dark matter particles (LDMs), which could be measured by km$^3$ neutrino telescopes (like the IceCube detector). The numbers and fluxes of expected LDMs and neutrinos were evaluated at IceCube with the $Z^{\prime}$ portal dark matter model. Based on the assumption that no events are observed at IceCube in 6 years, the corresponding upper limits on LDM fluxes were calculated at 90\% C. L.. These results indicated that LDMs could be directly detected in the O(…
The description of the heavy meson production at large energies and forward rapidities at the LHC is fundamental to derive realistic predictions of the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux at the IceCube Observatory. In particular, the prompt tau neutrino flux is determined by the decay of $D_s$ mesons produced in cosmic ray - air interactions at high energies and large values of the Feynman - $x_F$ variable. Recent data from the LHCb Collaboration indicate a production asymmetry for $D_s^+$ and $D_s^-$ mesons, which cannot be explained in terms of the standard modelling of the hadronization proce…
We have detected astrophysical neutrinos in IceCube that can be used to probe astrophysical sources at ultra high scales. Here we report a search for anomalous space time effects using astrophysical neutrino flavor data in IceCube. New effective operators are introduced to drive non-standard neutrino flavor mixing which modify the flavor ratios compared to standard cases. Using the High Energy Starting Events sample (HESE) 7.5-year data for this analysis, we found no evidence of such flavor anomalies. However, we are expecting to set limits from this new approach which goes far beyond any know…
Cosmic ray accelerators like supernova and hypernova remnants in star forming galaxies are one of the most plausible sources of the IceCube observed diffuse astrophysical neutrinos. The neutrino producing hadronic processes will also produce a diffuse gamma ray flux, constrained by the Fermi-LAT bounds. The fact that point sources like blazars also contribute to the diffuse gamma ray flux implies large gamma opacity of the neutrino sources. Indeed, for these high redshift star forming galaxies the gamma absorption during the intergalactic propagation can be significant. In addition, large gamm…
The 6-year dataset of high-energy starting events (HESE) at IceCube indicates a spectrum of astrophysical neutrinos much softer than expected from the Fermi shock acceleration mechanism. On the other hand, IceCube's up-going muon neutrino dataset and Fermi-LAT's gamma-ray spectrum point to an $E^{-2}$ neutrino spectrum. If the HESE data above 200 TeV are fit with the latter flux, an excess at lower energies ensues, which then suggests a multicomponent spectrum. We show that the HESE dataset can be explained by a single $E^{-2}$ power-law neutrino flux from a muon-damped $pγ$ source if neutrino…
The IceCube evidence for cosmic neutrinos has inspired a large number of hypothesis on their origin, mainly due to the poor precision on the measurement of the direction of showering events. A North/South asymmetry in the present data set suggests the presence of a possible Galactic component. This could be originated either by single point-like sources or from an extended Galactic region. Expected fluxes derived from these hypotheses are presented. Some values have been constrained from the present available upper limits from the ANTARES neutrino telescope.
At very-high energies (100 TeV - 1 PeV), the small value of Bjorken-x ($\le10^{-3}-10^{-7}$) at which the parton distribution functions are evaluated makes the calculation of charm quark production very difficult. The charm quark has mass ($\sim$1.5$\pm$0.2 GeV) significantly above the $Λ$$_{QCD}$ scale ($\sim$200 MeV), and therefore its production is perturbatively calculable. However, the uncertainty in the data and the calculations cannot exclude some smaller non-perturbative contribution. To evaluate the prompt neutrino flux, one needs to know the charm production cross-section in pN -> c$…
The excess of neutrino candidate events detected by IceCube from the direction of TXS 0506+056 has generated a great deal of interest in blazars as sources of high-energy neutrinos. In this study, we analyze the publicly available portion of the IceCube dataset, performing searches for neutrino point sources in spatial coincidence with the blazars and other active galactic nuclei contained in the Fermi 3LAC and the Roma BZCAT catalogs, as well as in spatial and temporal coincidence with flaring sources identified in the Fermi Collaboration's All-Sky Variability Analysis (FAVA). We find no evid…
After the first four years of data taking, the IceCube neutrino telescope has observed 54 high-energy starting events (HESE) with deposited energies between 20 TeV and 2 PeV. The background from atmospheric muons and neutrinos is expected to be of about 20 events, all below 100 TeV, thus pointing towards the astrophysical origin of about 8 events per year in that data set. However, their precise origin remains unknown. Here, we perform a detailed analysis of this event sample (considering simultaneously the energy, hemisphere and topology of the events) by assuming two contributions for the si…
High-energy neutrinos from decays of mesons, produced in collisions of cosmic ray particles with air nuclei, form unavoidable background for detection of astrophysical neutrinos. More precise calculations of the high-energy neutrino spectrum are required since measurements in the IceCube experiment reach the intriguing energy region where a contribution of the prompt neutrinos and/or astrophysical ones should be discovered. Basing on the referent hadronic models QGSJET II-03, SIBYLL 2.1, we calculate high-energy spectra, both of the muon and electron atmospheric neutrinos, averaged over zenith…
Starburst galaxies and star-forming regions in the Milkyway, with high rate of supernova activities, are candidate sources of high-energy neutrinos. Using a gamma-ray selected sample of these sources we perform statistical analysis of their angular correlation with the four-year sample of high-energy starting events (HESE), detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. We find that the two samples (starburst galaxies and local star-forming regions) are correlated with cosmic neutrinos at $\sim (2-3)σ$ (pre-trial) significance level, when the full HESE sample with deposited energy $\gtrsim 20$~…
It is assumed that heavy dark matter particles $ϕ$ with O(TeV) mass captured by the Sun may decay to relativistic light milli-charged particles (MCPs). These MCPs could be measured by the IceCube detector. The massless hidden photon model was taken for MCPs to interact with nuclei, so that the numbers and fluxes of expected MCPs and neutrinos may be evaluated at IceCube. Based on the assumption that no events are observed at IceCube in 6 years, the corresponding upper limits on MCP fluxes were calculated at 90\% C. L.. These results indicated that MCPs could be directly detected in the seconda…
