A search for cosmic neutrino sources using the data collected with the ANTARES neutrino telescope between early 2007 and the end of 2015 is performed. For the first time, all neutrino ...interactions-charged- and neutral-current interactions of all flavors-are considered in a search for point-like sources with the ANTARES detector. In previous analyses, only muon neutrino charged-current interactions were used. This is achieved by using a novel reconstruction algorithm for shower-like events in addition to the standard muon track reconstruction. The shower channel contributes about 23% of all signal events for an E−2 energy spectrum. No significant excess over background is found. The most signal-like cluster of events is located at (α,δ)=(343.8°,23.5°) with a significance of 1.9σ. The neutrino flux sensitivity of the search is about E2dΦ/dE=6×10−9 GeV cm−2 s−1 for declinations from −90° up to −42°, and below 10−8 GeV cm−2 s−1 for declinations up to 5°. The directions of 106 source candidates and 13 muon track events from the IceCube high-energy sample events are investigated for a possible neutrino signal and upper limits on the signal flux are determined.
Common simulation tools for large volume neutrino detectors Margiotta, A.
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
10/2013, Letnik:
725
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A general discussion of the organization of the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation in a Cherenkov neutrino telescope is presented. Some practical examples are taken from the simulation chain used for the ...ANTARES and the IceCube detectors.
The flux of very high-energy neutrinos produced in our Galaxy by the interaction of accelerated cosmic rays with the interstellar medium is not yet determined. The characterization of this flux will ...shed light on Galactic accelerator features, gas distribution morphology and Galactic cosmic ray transport. The central Galactic plane can be the site of an enhanced neutrino production, thus leading to anisotropies in the extraterrestrial neutrino signal as measured by the IceCube Collaboration. The ANTARES neutrino telescope, located in the Mediterranean Sea, offers a favorable view of this part of the sky, thereby allowing for a contribution to the determination of this flux. The expected diffuse Galactic neutrino emission can be obtained, linking a model of generation and propagation of cosmic rays with the morphology of the gas distribution in the Milky Way. In this paper, the so-called “gamma model” introduced recently to explain the high-energy gamma-ray diffuse Galactic emission is assumed as reference. The neutrino flux predicted by the “gamma model” depends on the assumed primary cosmic ray spectrum cutoff. Considering a radially dependent diffusion coefficient, this proposed scenario is able to account for the local cosmic ray measurements, as well as for the Galactic gamma-ray observations. Nine years of ANTARES data are used in this work to search for a possible Galactic contribution according to this scenario. All flavor neutrino interactions are considered. No excess of events is observed, and an upper limit is set on the neutrino flux of 1.1 (1.2) times the prediction of the “gamma model,” assuming the primary cosmic ray spectrum cutoff at 5 (50) PeV. This limit excludes the diffuse Galactic neutrino emission as the major cause of the “spectral anomaly” between the two hemispheres measured by IceCube.
Context. The source(s) of the neutrino excess reported by the IceCube Collaboration is unknown. The TANAMI Collaboration recently reported on the multiwavelength emission of six bright, variable ...blazars which are positionally coincident with two of the most energetic IceCube events. Objects like these are prime candidates to be the source of the highest-energy cosmic rays, and thus of associated neutrino emission. Aims. We present an analysis of neutrino emission from the six blazars using observations with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Methods. The standard methods of the ANTARES candidate list search are applied to six years of data to search for an excess of muons – and hence their neutrino progenitors – from the directions of the six blazars described by the TANAMI Collaboration, and which are possibly associated with two IceCube events. Monte Carlo simulations of the detector response to both signal and background particle fluxes are used to estimate the sensitivity of this analysis for different possible source neutrino spectra. A maximum-likelihood approach, using the reconstructed energies and arrival directions of through-going muons, is used to identify events with properties consistent with a blazar origin. Results. Both blazars predicted to be the most neutrino-bright in the TANAMI sample (1653−329 and 1714−336) have a signal flux fitted by the likelihood analysis corresponding to approximately one event. This observation is consistent with the blazar-origin hypothesis of the IceCube event IC 14 for a broad range of blazar spectra, although an atmospheric origin cannot be excluded. No ANTARES events are observed from any of the other four blazars, including the three associated with IceCube event IC20. This excludes at a 90% confidence level the possibility that this event was produced by these blazars unless the neutrino spectrum is flatter than −2.4.
Abstract
A search for astrophysical pointlike neutrino sources using the data collected by the ANTARES detector between 2007 January 29 and 2017 December 31 is presented. A likelihood method is used ...to assess the significance of an excess of muon neutrinos inducing track-like events in correlation with the location of a list of possible sources. Different sets of objects are tested in the analysis: (a) a subsample of the Fermi 3LAC catalog of blazars, (b) a jet-obscured population of active galactic nuclei, (c) a sample of hard X-ray selected radio galaxies, (d) a star-forming galaxy catalog, and (e) a public sample of 56 very-high-energy track events from the IceCube experiment. None of the tested sources shows a significant association with the sample of neutrinos detected by ANTARES. The smallest
p
-value is obtained for the catalog of radio galaxies with an equal-weights hypothesis, with a pre-trial
p
-value equivalent to a 2.8
σ
excess, which is equivalent to 1.6
σ
post-trial. In addition, the results of a dedicated analysis for the blazar MG3 J225517+2409 are also reported: this source is found to be the most significant within the Fermi 3LAC sample, with five ANTARES events located less than one degree from the source. This blazar showed evidence of flaring activity in Fermi data, in spacetime coincidence with a high-energy track detected by IceCube. An a posteriori significance of 2.6
σ
for the combination of ANTARES and IceCube data is reported.
The results of three different searches for neutrino candidates, associated with the IceCube-170922A event or from the direction of TXS 0506+056, by the ANTARES neutrino telescope, are presented. The ...first search refers to the online follow-up of the IceCube alert; the second is based on the standard time-integrated method employed by the Collaboration to search for point-like neutrino sources; the third uses information from the IceCube time-dependent analysis that reported bursting activity centered on 2014 December 13, as input for an ANTARES time-dependent analysis. The online follow-up and the time-dependent analysis yield no events related to the source. The time-integrated study performed over a period from 2007 to 2017 fits 1.03 signal events, which corresponds to a p-value of 3.4% (not considering trial factors). Only for two other astrophysical objects in our candidate list has a smaller p-value been found. When considering that 107 sources have been investigated, the post-trial p-value for TXS 0506+056 corresponds to 87%.
Monte Carlo simulations are a unique tool to check the response of a detector and to monitor its performance. For a deep-sea neutrino telescope, the variability of the environmental conditions that ...can affect the behaviour of the data acquisition system must be considered, in addition to a reliable description of the active parts of the detector and of the features of physics events, in order to produce a realistic set of simulated events. In this paper, the software tools used to produce neutrino and cosmic ray signatures in the telescope and the strategy developed to represent the time evolution of the natural environment and of the detector efficiency are described.
Abstract
On 2019 October 1, the IceCube Collaboration detected a muon track neutrino with a high probability of being of astrophysical origin, IC191001A. After a few hours, the tidal disruption event ...(TDE) AT2019dsg, observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), was indicated as the most likely counterpart of the IceCube track. More recently, the follow-up campaign of the IceCube alerts by ZTF suggested a second TDE, AT2019fdr, as a promising counterpart of another IceCube muon track candidate, IC200530A, detected on 2020 May 30. Here, these intriguing associations are followed-up by searching for neutrinos in the ANTARES detector from the directions of AT2019dsg and AT2019fdr using a time-integrated approach. As no significant evidence for space clustering is found in the ANTARES data, upper limits on the one-flavor neutrino flux and fluence are set.
Abstract
Since 2015 the LIGO and Virgo interferometers have detected gravitational waves from
almost one hundred coalescences of compact objects (black holes and neutron stars). This article
presents ...the results of a search performed with data from the ANTARES telescope to identify
neutrino counterparts to the gravitational wave sources detected during the third LIGO/Virgo
observing run and reported in the catalogues GWTC-2, GWTC-2.1, and GWTC-3. This search is
sensitive to all-sky neutrinos of all flavours and of energies > 100 GeV,
thanks to the inclusion of both track-like events (mainly induced by
ν
μ
charged-current
interactions) and shower-like events (induced by other interaction types). Neutrinos are selected
if they are detected within ± 500 s from the GW merger and with a reconstructed
direction compatible with its sky localisation. No significant excess is found for any of the 80
analysed GW events, and upper limits on the neutrino emission are derived. Using the information
from the GW catalogues and assuming isotropic emission, upper limits on the total energy
E
tot,
ν
emitted as neutrinos of all flavours and on the ratio
f
ν
=
E
tot,
ν
/
E
GW
between neutrino and GW emissions are also computed. Finally, a stacked
analysis of all the 72 binary black hole mergers (respectively the 7 neutron star-black hole
merger candidates) has been performed to constrain the typical neutrino emission within this
population, leading to the limits:
E
tot,
ν
< 4.0 × 10
53
erg and
f
ν
< 0.15
(respectively,
E
tot,
ν
< 3.2 × 10^53 erg and
f
ν
< 0.88) for
E
-2
spectrum
and isotropic emission. Other assumptions including softer spectra and non-isotropic scenarios
have also been tested.