Searching for transient astrophysical neutrino sources with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory using a multimessenger approach by Sarah Mancina (Padua)

Wednesday 15 May 2024, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/London

King's College London, K6.33

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a neutrino detector that instruments a cubic kilometer of ice below the South Pole. The detector has been operating in its full configuration since 2011 and the data has been used to characterize the astrophysical neutrino flux as well as look for individual sources of the astrophysical neutrinos. Astrophysical neutrinos are hypothesized to be produced by accelerated cosmic rays that interact with their source environment producing particles which decay into energetic neutrinos and gamma-rays. Many gamma-ray sources, such as blazars, have a variable gamma-ray flux due to transient activity which could also produce neutrino flares. Therefore, IceCube has implemented a realtime platform that sends out neutrino activity of interest to the multimessenger community. This platform takes advantage of IceCube's ability to observe the full sky and to operate nearly 100% of the time to send out targets of opportunity to telescopes which must be pointed and operated at night. Here we will discuss IceCube's gamma-ray follow-up (GFU) alerts which identify neutrino flare candidates consisting of multiple neutrinos. The current version of GFU alerts have been shared with Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs, sensitive to TeV gamma-rays) since 2019. An offline analysis of the GFU alerts as well as preliminary results from gamma-ray follow-up by the IACTs will be reported.

2024_05_15_KingsSeminarGFU_SMancina.pdf