What IceCube data tell us about neutrino emission from star-forming galaxies (so far)

Abstract

Very recently, the IceCube Collaboration reported a flux of neutrinos in the energy range 50 TeV < E_ν< 2 PeV, which departs from expectations from atmospheric background at the 5.7σlevel. This flux is in remarkable agreement with the expected diffuse flux of neutrinos from starburst galaxies, and the 3 highest energy events have uncertainty contours encompassing some of such systems. These events, all of which have well-measured energies above 1 PeV, exhibit shower topologies, for which the angular resolution is about 15^\circ. Due to this angular uncertainty and the a posteriori nature of cuts used in our study it is not possible to assign a robust statistical significance to this association. Using muon tracks, which have angular resolution < 1^\circ, we compute the number of observations required to make a statistically significant statement, and show that in a few years of operation the upgraded IceCube detector should be able to confirm or refute this hypothesis. We also note that double bang topology rates constitute a possible discriminator among various astrophysical sources.

Reference added, matching version to be published in PRD

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Cited by in corpus (22)

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• Pinpointing Extragalactic Neutrino Sources in Light of Recent IceCube Observations
• Spectral analysis of the high-energy IceCube neutrinos
• High-energy gamma-ray and neutrino backgrounds from clusters of galaxies and radio constraints
• Glashow resonance as a window into cosmic neutrino sources
• Extragalactic star-forming galaxies with hypernovae and supernovae as high-energy neutrino and gamma-ray sources: the case of the 10 TeV neutrino data
• The diffuse gamma-ray flux associated with sub-PeV/PeV neutrinos from starburst galaxies
• Starburst galaxies strike back: a multi-messenger analysis with Fermi-LAT and IceCube data
• Neutrino Lighthouse at Sagittarius A*
• Probing decaying heavy dark matter with the 4-year IceCube HESE data
• Star-forming galaxies as the origin of the IceCube PeV neutrinos
• Estimating the contribution of Galactic sources to the diffuse neutrino flux
• Describing the Observed Cosmic Neutrinos by Interactions of Nuclei with Matter
• Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos from Gamma-Ray Bursts, Hypernovae and Galactic Shocks
• Charm decay in slow-jet supernovae as the origin of the IceCube ultra-high energy neutrino events
• Search for GeV and X-ray flares associated with the IceCube track-like neutrinos
• Beyond first light: Global monitoring for high-energy neutrino astronomy
• Gamma-Rays from Star Forming Activity Appear to Outshine Misaligned Active Galactic Nuclei
• Seeking Neutrino Emission from AGN through Temporal and Spatial Cross Correlation
• The IceCube Pie Chart: Relative Source Contributions to the Cosmic Neutrino Flux
• High-Energy Neutrino Production in Clusters of Galaxies