Observation of Seven Astrophysical Tau Neutrino Candidates with IceCube
(2024) Physical Review Letters — Vol. 132 (2024)
Files
2403.pdf
Open Access - Adobe PDF
- 9.66 MB
Details
- Authors
Lamoureux, Mathieu 
- et. al.
- Abstract
- We report on a measurement of astrophysical tau neutrinos with 9.7 yr of IceCube data. Using convolutional neural networks trained on images derived from simulated events, seven candidate <math display="inline"><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>ν</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>τ</mi></mrow></msub></mrow></math> events were found with visible energies ranging from roughly 20 TeV to 1 PeV and a median expected parent <math display="inline"><msub><mi>ν</mi><mi>τ</mi></msub></math> energy of about 200 TeV. Considering backgrounds from astrophysical and atmospheric neutrinos, and muons from <math display="inline"><msup><mi>π</mi><mo>±</mo></msup><mo>/</mo><msup><mi>K</mi><mo>±</mo></msup></math> decays in atmospheric air showers, we obtain a total estimated background of about 0.5 events, dominated by non-<math display="inline"><msub><mi>ν</mi><mi>τ</mi></msub></math> astrophysical neutrinos. Thus, we rule out the absence of astrophysical <math display="inline"><msub><mi>ν</mi><mi>τ</mi></msub></math> at the <math display="inline"><mn>5</mn><mi>σ</mi></math> level. The measured astrophysical <math display="inline"><msub><mi>ν</mi><mi>τ</mi></msub></math> flux is consistent with expectations based on previously published IceCube astrophysical neutrino flux measurements and neutrino oscillations.
- Affiliations
Citations
de Wasseige, G., Kruiswijk, K., Lamoureux, M., Raab, C., Vereecken, M., (IceCube Collaboration)§, IceCube, & et al. (2024). Observation of Seven Astrophysical Tau Neutrino Candidates with IceCube. Physical Review Letters, 132. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.151001 (Original work published 2024)