Deciphering the Sources of Cosmic Neutrinos
arXiv:2503.07718 · doi:10.1103/ntm4-lgbk
Abstract
More than a decade ago, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory discovered a diffuse flux of 10 TeV-10 PeV neutrinos from our Universe. This flux of unknown origin most likely emanates from an extragalactic population of neutrino sources, which are individually too faint to appear as bright emitters. We review constraints on extragalactic neutrino source populations based on the non-detection of the brightest neutrino source. Extending previous work, we discuss limitations of source populations based on general neutrino luminosity functions. Our method provides more conservative but also statistically more robust predictions for the expected number of observable sources. We also show that the combined search of the brightest neutrino sources via weighted stacking searches or the analysis of non-Poissonian fluctuations in event-count histograms can improve the discovery potential by a factor of 2-3 relative to the brightest source.
arXiv commentMatches version published in Physical Review D 111, 103052 (2025)
References in corpus (85)
- Asymptotic formulae for likelihood-based tests of new physics
- Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector
- Nuclear Activity in Nearby Galaxies
- Observation of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos in Three Years of IceCube Data
- Multi-messenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A
- Neutrino emission from the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+056 prior to the IceCube-170922A alert
- The Mass Function of an X-Ray Flux-Limited Sample of Galaxy Clusters
- First observation of PeV-energy neutrinos with IceCube
- Toward the Standard Population Synthesis Model of the X-Ray Background: Evolution of X-Ray Luminosity and Absorption Functions of Active Galactic Nuclei Including Compton-Thick Populations
- Precision Determination of the Mass Function of Dark Matter Halos
- COLOSSUS: A python toolkit for cosmology, large-scale structure, and dark matter halos
- Evidence for neutrino emission from the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068
- Time-integrated Neutrino Source Searches with 10 years of IceCube Data
- The Herschel PEP/HerMES Luminosity Function. I: Probing the Evolution of PACS selected Galaxies to z~4
- GeV Observations of Star-forming Galaxies with \textit{Fermi} LAT
- The IceCube high-energy starting event sample: Description and flux characterization with 7.5 years of data
- Testing the Hadronuclear Origin of PeV Neutrinos Observed with IceCube
- Hidden Cosmic-Ray Accelerators as an Origin of TeV-PeV Cosmic Neutrinos
- All-sky search for time-integrated neutrino emission from astrophysical sources with 7 years of IceCube data
- Diffuse Neutrino Intensity from the Inner Jets of Active Galactic Nuclei: Impacts of External Photon Fields and the Blazar Sequence
- Observation of high-energy neutrinos from the Galactic plane
- The blazar sequence: a new perspective
- The radio luminosity function from the low-frequency 3CRR, 6CE & 7CRS complete samples
- Evidence for Unresolved Gamma-Ray Point Sources in the Inner Galaxy
- The Cosmic Evolution of Fermi BL Lacertae Objects
- Characteristics of the diffuse astrophysical electron and tau neutrino flux with six years of IceCube high energy cascade data
- The contribution of Fermi-2LAC blazars to the diffuse TeV-PeV neutrino flux
- The Cumulative Bakground of High-Energy Neutrinos from Starburst Galaxies
- A tidal disruption event coincident with a high-energy neutrino
- The Luminosity Function of Fermi-detected Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasars
- Improved Characterization of the Astrophysical Muon-Neutrino Flux with 9.5 Years of IceCube Data
- Constraining High-Energy Cosmic Neutrino Sources: Implications and Prospects
- Hidden Cores of Active Galactic Nuclei as the Origin of Medium-Energy Neutrinos: Critical Tests with the MeV Gamma-Ray Connection
- Active Galactic Nuclei in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: II. Emission-Line Luminosity Function
- Star-forming galaxies as the origin of diffuse high-energy backgrounds: Gamma-ray and neutrino connections, and implications for starburst history
- Extending the search for muon neutrinos coincident with gamma-ray bursts in IceCube data
- Blazar Flares as an Origin of High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos?
- Grand Unified Neutrino Spectrum at Earth: Sources and Spectral Components
- Contribution of the Gamma-ray Loud Radio Galaxies Core Emissions to the Cosmic MeV and GeV Gamma-Ray Background Radiation
- Candidate Tidal Disruption Event AT2019fdr Coincident with a High-Energy Neutrino
- Pinpointing Extragalactic Neutrino Sources in Light of Recent IceCube Observations
- Opening a New Window onto the Universe with IceCube
- Measurements using the inelasticity distribution of multi-TeV neutrino interactions in IceCube
- Imprint of Intergalactic Shocks on the Radio Sky
- Search for steady point-like sources in the astrophysical muon neutrino flux with 8 years of IceCube data
- Statistics of gamma-ray point sources below the Fermi detection limit
- On high-energy particles in accretion disk coronae of supermassive black holes: implications for MeV gamma rays and high-energy neutrinos from AGN cores
- Searches for Time Dependent Neutrino Sources with IceCube Data from 2008 to 2012
- High energy neutrinos from radio-quiet AGNs
- Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Backgrounds as Probes of the High-Energy Universe: Hints of Cascades, General Constraints, and Implications for TeV Searches
- High-energy gamma-ray and neutrino backgrounds from clusters of galaxies and radio constraints
- Characterization of the Astrophysical Diffuse Neutrino Flux using Starting Track Events in IceCube
- Searches for Neutrinos from Gamma-Ray Bursts using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
- Contribution of starburst nuclei to the diffuse gamma-ray and neutrino flux
- Deciphering Contributions to the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background from 2 GeV to 2 TeV
- Unveiling the Gamma-ray Source Count Distribution Below the Fermi Detection Limit with Photon Statistics
- Detection of astrophysical tau neutrino candidates in IceCube
- A search for neutrino emission from cores of Active Galactic Nuclei
- IceCube Search for High-Energy Neutrino Emission from TeV Pulsar Wind Nebulae
- Proton and Neutrino Extragalactic Astronomy
- High-Energy Extragalactic Neutrino Astrophysics
- Complementarity of Stacking and Multiplet Constraints on the Blazar Contribution to the Cumulative High-Energy Neutrino Intensity
- Constraints on Minute-Scale Transient Astrophysical Neutrino Sources
- Analysis of the cumulative neutrino flux from Fermi-LAT blazar populations using 3 years of IceCube data
- Bayesian constraints on the astrophysical neutrino source population from IceCube data
- Constraints on Extragalactic Point Source Flux from Diffuse Neutrino Limits
- Status of High-Energy Neutrino Astronomy
- Constraining High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Supernovae with IceCube
- Observation of Seven Astrophysical Tau Neutrino Candidates with IceCube
- Search for Astrophysical Neutrinos from 1FLE Blazars with IceCube
- Search for High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Galactic X-ray Binaries with IceCube
- Detection prospects for high energy neutrino sources from the anisotropic matter distribution in the local universe
- Self-consistent model of extragalactic neutrino flux from evolving blazar population
- A search for time-dependent astrophysical neutrino emission with IceCube data from 2012 to 2017
- Search for 10--1000 GeV neutrinos from Gamma Ray Bursts with IceCube
- Searching for High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Galaxy Clusters with IceCube
- Constraints on populations of neutrino sources from searches in the directions of IceCube neutrino alerts
- Search for High-Energy Neutrinos from Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies with IceCube
- Identifying High Energy Neutrino Transients by Neutrino Multiplet-Triggered Followups
- Can astrophysical neutrinos trace the origin of the detected ultra-high energy cosmic rays?
- Galactic Diffuse Neutrino Emission from Sources beyond the Discovery Horizon
- Search for sub-TeV Neutrino Emission from Novae with IceCube-DeepCore
- A Search for Neutrino Point-Source Populations in 7 Years of IceCube Data with Neutrino-count Statistics
- PeV-EeV neutrinos from gamma-ray blazars due to ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray propagation
- Probing the connection between IceCube neutrinos and MOJAVE AGN