We present results from an analysis looking for dark matter annihilation in the Sun with the IceCube neutrino telescope. Gravitationally trapped dark matter in the Sun's core can annihilate into ...Standard Model particles making the Sun a source of GeV neutrinos. IceCube is able to detect neutrinos with energies >100 GeV while its low-energy infill array DeepCore extends this to >10 GeV. This analysis uses data gathered in the austral winters between May 2011 and May 2014, corresponding to 532 days of livetime when the Sun, being below the horizon, is a source of up-going neutrino events, easiest to discriminate against the dominant background of atmospheric muons. The sensitivity is a factor of two to four better than previous searches due to additional statistics and improved analysis methods involving better background rejection and reconstructions. The resultant upper limits on the spin-dependent dark matter-proton scattering cross section reach down to Formula omitted pb for a dark matter particle of mass 500 GeV annihilating exclusively into Formula omittedparticles. These are currently the most stringent limits on the spin-dependent dark matter-proton scattering cross section for WIMP masses above 50 GeV.
In the pursuit of the measurement of the still-elusive ultrahigh-energy (UHE) neutrino flux at energies of order EeV, detectors using the in-ice Askaryan radio technique have increasingly targeted ...lower trigger thresholds. This has led to improved trigger-level sensitivity to UHE neutrinos. Working with data collected by the Askaryan Radio Array (ARA), we search for neutrino candidates at the lowest threshold achieved to date, leading to improved analysis-level sensitivities. A neutrino search on a data set with 208.7~days of livetime from the reduced-threshold fifth ARA station is performed, achieving a 68\% analysis efficiency over all energies on a simulated mixed-composition neutrino flux with an expected background of \(0.10_{-0.04}^{+0.06}\) events passing the analysis. We observe one event passing our analysis and proceed to set a neutrino flux limit using a Feldman-Cousins construction. We show that the improved trigger-level sensitivity can be carried through an analysis, motivating the Phased Array triggering technique for use in future radio-detection experiments. We also include a projection using all available data from this detector. Finally, we find that future analyses will benefit from studies of events near the surface to fully understand the background expected for a large-scale detector.
Since summer 2021, the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G) is searching for astrophysical neutrinos at energies
>
10
PeV by detecting the radio emission from particle showers in the ice ...around Summit Station, Greenland. We present an extensive simulation study that shows how RNO-G will be able to measure the energy of such particle cascades, which will in turn be used to estimate the energy of the incoming neutrino that caused them. The location of the neutrino interaction is determined using the differences in arrival times between channels and the electric field of the radio signal is reconstructed using a novel approach based on Information Field Theory. Based on these properties, the shower energy can be estimated. We show that this method can achieve an uncertainty of 13% on the logarithm of the shower energy after modest quality cuts and estimate how this can constrain the energy of the neutrino. The method presented in this paper is applicable to all similar radio neutrino detectors, such as the proposed radio array of IceCube-Gen2.
Abstract
In multi-messenger astronomy, rapid investigation of interesting transients is imperative. As an observatory with a 4
π
steradian field of view, and ∼99% uptime, the IceCube Neutrino ...Observatory is a unique facility to follow up transients, as well as to provide valuable insights for other observatories and inform their observational decisions. Since 2016, IceCube has been using low-latency data to rapidly respond to interesting astrophysical events reported by the multi-messenger observational community. Here, we describe the pipeline used to perform these followup analyses, and provide a summary of the 58 analyses performed as of July 2020. We find no significant signal in the first 58 analyses performed. The pipeline has helped inform various electromagnetic observation strategies, and has constrained neutrino emission from potential hadronic cosmic accelerators.
Starting in summer 2021, the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G) will search for astrophysical neutrinos at energies >10 PeV by detecting the radio emission from particle showers in the ...ice around Summit Station, Greenland. We present an extensive simulation study that shows how RNO-G will be able to measure the energy of such particle cascades, which will in turn be used to estimate the energy of the incoming neutrino that caused them. The location of the neutrino interaction is determined using the differences in arrival times between channels and the electric field of the radio signal is reconstructed using a novel approach based on Information Field Theory. Based on these properties, the shower energy can be estimated. We show that this method can achieve an uncertainty of 13% on the logarithm of the shower energy after modest quality cuts and estimate how this can constrain the energy of the neutrino. The method presented in this paper is applicable to all similar radio neutrino detectors, such as the proposed radio array of IceCube-Gen2.
We present an all-sky 90% confidence level upper limit on the cosmic flux of relativistic magnetic monopoles using 2886 days of IceCube data. The analysis was optimized for monopole speeds between ...0.750c and 0.995c, without any explicit restriction on the monopole mass. We constrain the flux of relativistic cosmic magnetic monopoles to a level below 2.0×10^{-19} cm^{-2} s^{-1} sr^{-1} over the majority of the targeted speed range. This result constitutes the most strict upper limit to date for magnetic monopoles with β≳0.8 and up to β∼0.995 and fills the gap between existing limits on the cosmic flux of nonrelativistic and ultrarelativistic magnetic monopoles.