Journal article
Differential limit on the extremely-high-energy cosmic neutrino flux in the presence of astrophysical background from nine years of IceCube data
Physical review. D, v 98(6), p062003
2018
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Abstract
We report a quasidifferential upper limit on the extremely-high-energy (EHE) neutrino flux above 5 x 10(6) GeV based on an analysis of nine years of IceCube data. The astrophysical neutrino flux measured by IceCube extends to PeV energies, and it is a background flux when searching for an independent signal flux at higher energies, such as the cosmogenic neutrino signal. We have developed a new method to place robust limits on the EHE neutrino flux in the presence of an astrophysical background, whose spectrum has yet to be understood with high precision at PeV energies. A distinct event with a deposited energy above 10(6) GeV was found in the new two-year sample, in addition to the one event previously found in the seven-year EHE neutrino search. These two events represent a neutrino flux that is incompatible with predictions for a cosmogenic neutrino flux and are considered to be an astrophysical background in the current study. The obtained limit is the most stringent to date in the energy range between 5 x 10(6) and 2 x 10(10) GeV. This result constrains neutrino models predicting a three-flavor neutrino flux of E-nu(2)phi(nu e+nu mu+nu tau) similar or equal to 2 x 10(-8) GeV/cm(2) sec sr at 10(9) GeV. A significant part of the parameter space for EHE neutrino production scenarios assuming a proton-dominated composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is disfavored independently of uncertain models of the extragalactic background light which previous IceCube constraints partially relied on.
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Details
- Title
- Differential limit on the extremely-high-energy cosmic neutrino flux in the presence of astrophysical background from nine years of IceCube data
- Creators
- Maryon Ahrens - Oskar Klein-centrum för kosmopartikelfysik (OKC)Christian Bohm - FysikumKunal Deoskar - Oskar Klein-centrum för kosmopartikelfysik (OKC)Jonathan P. Dumm - Oskar Klein-centrum för kosmopartikelfysik (OKC)Chad Finley - Oskar Klein-centrum för kosmopartikelfysik (OKC)Samuel Flis - Oskar Klein-centrum för kosmopartikelfysik (OKC)Klas Hultqvist - Oskar Klein-centrum för kosmopartikelfysik (OKC)Erin O'Sullivan - Oskar Klein-centrum för kosmopartikelfysik (OKC)Christian Walck - Oskar Klein-centrum för kosmopartikelfysik (OKC)IceCube Collaboration
- Publication Details
- Physical review. D, v 98(6), p062003
- Publisher
- Cold Spring Harbor Press
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Physics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000444572700001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85054533638
- Other Identifier
- 991019168351204721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Physics, Particles & Fields