skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Characteristics of the Diffuse Astrophysical Electron and Tau Neutrino Flux with Six Years of IceCube High Energy Cascade Data

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less

In this work, we report on the first measurement of the astrophysical neutrino flux using particle showers (cascades) in IceCube data from 2010-2015. Assuming standard oscillations, the astrophysical neutrinos in this dedicated cascade sample are dominated (~90%) by electron and tau flavors. The flux, observed in the sensitive energy range from 16 TeV to 2.6 PeV, is consistent with a single power-law model as expected from Fermi-type acceleration of high energy particles at astrophysical sources. We find the flux spectral index to be γ=2.53±0.07 and a flux normalization for each neutrino flavor of $$\phi$$astro=1.66$$_{-0.27}^{+0.25}$$ at E0=100 TeV, in agreement with IceCube's complementary muon neutrino results and with all-neutrino flavor fit results. In the measured energy range we reject spectral indices γ≤2.28 at ≥3σ significance level. Because of high neutrino energy resolution and low atmospheric neutrino backgrounds, this analysis provides the most detailed characterization of the neutrino flux at energies below ~100 TeV compared to previous IceCube results. Results from fits assuming more complex neutrino flux models suggest a flux softening at high energies and a flux hardening at low energies (p value ≥0.06). The sizable and smooth flux measured below ~100 TeV remains a puzzle. In order to not violate the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray background as measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope, it suggests the existence of astrophysical neutrino sources characterized by dense environments which are opaque to gamma rays.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Contributing Organization:
IceCube Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1713249
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 125, Issue 12; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (68)

Measurement of the atmospheric neutrino energy spectrum from 100 GeV to 400 TeV with IceCube journal January 2011
Flavor composition and energy spectrum of astrophysical neutrinos journal June 2007
An analysis of cosmic neutrinos: Flavor composition at source and neutrino mixing parameters journal November 2009
A simplified view of blazars: the neutrino background journal July 2015
Measurements of the atmospheric neutrino flux by Super-Kamiokande: Energy spectra, geomagnetic effects, and solar modulation journal September 2016
Joint Constraints on Galactic Diffuse Neutrino Emission from the ANTARES and IceCube Neutrino Telescopes journal November 2018
Erratum: ‘‘High-energy neutrinos from active galactic nuclei’’ [Phys. Rev. Lett. 66 , 2697 (1991)] journal November 1992
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory: instrumentation and online systems journal March 2017
Energy reconstruction methods in the IceCube neutrino telescope journal March 2014
A Combined Maximum-Likelihood Analysis of the High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrino flux Measured with Icecube journal August 2015
Search for neutrino-induced particle showers with IceCube-40 journal May 2014
Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector journal November 2013
Neutrino emission from the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+056 prior to the IceCube-170922A alert journal July 2018
The energy spectrum of atmospheric neutrinos between 2 and 200TeV with the AMANDA-II detector journal August 2010
THE SPECTRUM OF ISOTROPIC DIFFUSE GAMMA-RAY EMISSION BETWEEN 100 MeV AND 820 GeV journal January 2015
Calculation of atmospheric neutrino flux using the interaction model calibrated with atmospheric muon data journal February 2007
Photohadronic origin of the TeV-PeV neutrinos observed in IceCube journal October 2013
Vetoing atmospheric neutrinos in a high energy neutrino telescope journal February 2009
Hidden Cores of Active Galactic Nuclei as the Origin of Medium-Energy Neutrinos: Critical Tests with the MeV Gamma-Ray Connection journal June 2020
Generalized self-veto probability for atmospheric neutrinos journal July 2014
Cosmic ray interaction event generator SIBYLL 2.1 journal November 2009
Search for Sources of Astrophysical Neutrinos Using Seven Years of IceCube Cascade Events journal November 2019
On the origin of relativistic particles and gamma-rays in quasars journal February 1983
A new version of the event generator Sibyll conference August 2016
Measurement of the Atmospheric ν e Flux in IceCube journal April 2013
The central engine of quasars and active galactic nuclei Hadronic interactions of shock-accelerated relativistic protons journal May 1986
The high energy neutrino cross-section in the Standard Model and its uncertainty journal August 2011
Muon Acceleration in Cosmic-Ray Sources journal November 2013
Electron injection by relativistic protons in active galactic nuclei journal September 1987
Clarification of the use of CHI-square and likelihood functions in fits to histograms journal April 1984
Observation of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos in Three Years of IceCube Data journal September 2014
Observation and Characterization of a Cosmic muon Neutrino flux from the Northern Hemisphere Using six Years of Icecube data journal December 2016
The acceleration of cosmic rays in shock fronts - I journal February 1978
Multimessenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A journal July 2018
Calculation of conventional and prompt lepton fluxes at very high energy journal January 2015
High-energy neutrinos from active galactic nuclei journal May 1991
Unified atmospheric neutrino passing fractions for large-scale neutrino telescopes journal July 2018
Resonant Scattering of Antineutrinos journal April 1960
Constraints on Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic-Ray Sources from a Search for Neutrinos above 10 PeV with IceCube journal December 2016
All-flavor Search for a Diffuse Flux of Cosmic Neutrinos with Nine Years of ANTARES Data journal January 2018
Shower power: isolating the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux using electron neutrinos journal November 2004
ANIS: High energy neutrino generator for neutrino telescopes journal November 2005
The Glashow resonance at IceCube: signatures, event rates and pp vs. p γ interactions journal October 2011
Determination of the atmospheric neutrino flux and searches for new physics with AMANDA-II journal May 2009
First search for atmospheric and extraterrestrial neutrino-induced cascades with the IceCube detector journal October 2011
EPOS LHC: Test of collective hadronization with data measured at the CERN Large Hadron Collider journal September 2015
Atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos above 1 TeV interacting in IceCube journal January 2015
Testing the hadronuclear origin of PeV neutrinos observed with IceCube journal December 2013
Hidden Cosmic-Ray Accelerators as an Origin of TeV-PeV Cosmic Neutrinos journal February 2016
The Monte Carlo Event Generator DPMJET-III book January 2001
Theoretically Palatable Flavor Combinations of Astrophysical Neutrinos journal October 2015
Global analysis of three-flavour neutrino oscillations: synergies and tensions in the determination of θ23, δCP, and the mass ordering journal January 2019
Measurement of the diffuse astrophysical muon-neutrino spectrum with ten years of IceCube data conference July 2019
Evidence against Star-forming Galaxies as the Dominant Source of Icecube Neutrinos journal February 2017
First Observation of PeV-Energy Neutrinos with IceCube journal July 2013
Measurement of the Atmospheric ν e Spectrum with IceCube journal June 2015
THE GAMMA-RAY AND NEUTRINO SKY: A CONSISTENT PICTURE OF FERMI -LAT, MILAGRO, AND ICECUBE RESULTS journal December 2015
High Energy Astrophysical Neutrino Flux Measurement Using Neutrino-induced Cascades Observed in 4 Years of IceCube Data conference August 2018
Intrinsic and Oscillated Astrophysical Neutrino Flavor Ratios Revisited journal April 2006
On High-energy Particles in Accretion Disk Coronae of Supermassive Black Holes: Implications for MeV Gamma-rays and High-energy Neutrinos from AGN Cores journal July 2019
Spectrum of cosmic-ray nucleons, kaon production, and the atmospheric muon charge ratio journal July 2012
High energy astrophysical neutrino flux characteristics for neutrino-induced cascades using IC79 and IC86-string IceCube conf
  • Niederhausen, Hans Martin; Lesiak-Bzdak, Mariola; Stoessl, A.
  • Proceedings of The 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2015) https://doi.org/10.22323/1.236.1109
conference August 2016
Perturbative charm production and the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux in light of RHIC and LHC journal June 2015
Measurement of the atmospheric ν μ energy spectrum from 100 GeV to 200 TeV with the ANTARES telescope journal October 2013
Astrophysical Neutrinos: Flavor Ratios Depend on Energy journal October 2005
Characterization of the Astrophysical Diffuse Neutrino Flux with IceCube High-Energy Starting Events conference July 2019
Detecting ντ oscillations at PeV energies journal May 1995
Search for cascade events with Baikal-GVD
  • Dvornicky, Rastislav; Dzhilkibaev, Zhan-Arys Magysovich; Avrorin, A. D.
  • Proceedings of 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2019) https://doi.org/10.22323/1.358.0873
conference July 2019

Similar Records

Boosted dark matter and its implications for the features in IceCube HESE data
Journal Article · Tue May 02 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · OSTI ID:1713249
+1 more
Boosted dark matter and its implications for the features in IceCube HESE data
Journal Article · Mon May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · OSTI ID:1713249
+1 more
Observation and characterization of a cosmic muon neutrino flux from the Northern Hemisphere using six years of IceCube Data
Journal Article · Thu Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2016 · The Astrophysical Journal (Online) · OSTI ID:1713249
+308 more

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY