Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector
Abstract
We report on results of an all-sky search for high-energy neutrino events interacting within the IceCube neutrino detector conducted between May 2010 and May 2012. The search follows up on the previous detection of two PeV neutrino events, with improved sensitivity and extended energy coverage down to approximately 30 TeV. Twenty-six additional events were observed, substantially more than expected from atmospheric backgrounds. Combined, both searches reject a purely atmospheric origin for the twenty-eight events at the level. These twenty-eight events, which include the highest energy neutrinos ever observed, have flavors, directions, and energies inconsistent with those expected from the atmospheric muon and neutrino backgrounds. These properties are, however, consistent with generic predictions for an additional component of extraterrestrial origin.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1311.5238,
title = {Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector},
author = {IceCube Collaboration and M. G. Aartsen and R. Abbasi and Y. Abdou and M. Ackermann and J. Adams and J. A. Aguilar and M. Ahlers and D. Altmann and J. Auffenberg and X. Bai and M. Baker and S. W. Barwick and V. Baum and R. Bay and J. J. Beatty and S. Bechet and J. Becker Tjus and K. -H. Becker and M. L. Benabderrahmane and S. BenZvi and P. Berghaus and D. Berley and E. Bernardini and A. Bernhard and D. Bertrand and D. Z. Besson and G. Binder and D. Bindig and M. Bissok and E. Blaufuss and J. Blumenthal and D. J. Boersma and S. Bohaichuk and C. Bohm and D. Bose and S. Böser and O. Botner and L. Brayeur and H. -P. Bretz and A. M. Brown and R. Bruijn and J. Brunner and M. Carson and J. Casey and M. Casier and D. Chirkin and A. Christov and B. Christy and K. Clark and F. Clevermann and S. Coenders and S. Cohen and D. F. Cowen and A. H. Cruz Silva and M. Danninger and J. Daughhetee and J. C. Davis and M. Day and C. De Clercq and S. De Ridder and P. Desiati and K. D. de Vries and M. de With and T. DeYoung and J. C. Díaz-Vélez and M. Dunkman and R. Eagan and B. Eberhardt and B. Eichmann and J. Eisch and R. W. Ellsworth and S. Euler and P. A. Evenson and O. Fadiran and A. R. Fazely and A. Fedynitch and J. Feintzeig and T. Feusels and K. Filimonov and C. Finley and T. Fischer-Wasels and S. Flis and A. Franckowiak and K. Frantzen and T. Fuchs and T. K. Gaisser and J. Gallagher and L. Gerhardt and L. Gladstone and T. Glüsenkamp and A. Goldschmidt and G. Golup and J. G. Gonzalez and J. A. Goodman and D. Góra and D. T. Grandmont and D. Grant and A. Groß and C. Ha and A. Haj Ismail and P. Hallen and A. Hallgren and F. Halzen and K. Hanson and D. Heereman and D. Heinen and K. Helbing and R. Hellauer and S. Hickford and G. C. Hill and K. D. Hoffman and R. Hoffmann and A. Homeier and K. Hoshina and W. Huelsnitz and P. O. Hulth and K. Hultqvist and S. Hussain and A. Ishihara and E. Jacobi and J. Jacobsen and K. Jagielski and G. S. Japaridze and K. Jero and O. Jlelati and B. Kaminsky and A. Kappes and T. Karg and A. Karle and J. L. Kelley and J. Kiryluk and J. Kläs and S. R. Klein and J. -H. Köhne and G. Kohnen and H. Kolanoski and L. Köpke and C. Kopper and S. Kopper and D. J. Koskinen and M. Kowalski and M. Krasberg and K. Krings and G. Kroll and J. Kunnen and N. Kurahashi and T. Kuwabara and M. Labare and H. Landsman and M. J. Larson and M. Lesiak-Bzdak and M. Leuermann and J. Leute and J. Lünemann and J. Madsen and G. Maggi and R. Maruyama and K. Mase and H. S. Matis and F. McNally and K. Meagher and M. Merck and T. Meures and S. Miarecki and E. Middell and N. Milke and J. Miller and L. Mohrmann and T. Montaruli and R. Morse and R. Nahnhauer and U. Naumann and H. Niederhausen and S. C. Nowicki and D. R. Nygren and A. Obertacke and S. Odrowski and A. Olivas and A. O'Murchadha and L. Paul and J. A. Pepper and C. Pérez de los Heros and C. Pfendner and D. Pieloth and E. Pinat and J. Posselt and P. B. Price and G. T. Przybylski and L. Rädel and M. Rameez and K. Rawlins and P. Redl and R. Reimann and E. Resconi and W. Rhode and M. Ribordy and M. Richman and B. Riedel and J. P. Rodrigues and C. Rott and T. Ruhe and B. Ruzybayev and D. Ryckbosch and S. M. Saba and T. Salameh and H. -G. Sander and M. Santander and S. Sarkar and K. Schatto and F. Scheriau and T. Schmidt and M. Schmitz and S. Schoenen and S. Schöneberg and A. Schönwald and A. Schukraft and L. Schulte and O. Schulz and D. Seckel and Y. Sestayo and S. Seunarine and R. Shanidze and C. Sheremata and M. W. E. Smith and D. Soldin and G. M. Spiczak and C. Spiering and M. Stamatikos and T. Stanev and A. Stasik and T. Stezelberger and R. G. Stokstad and A. Stößl and E. A. Strahler and R. Ström and G. W. Sullivan and H. Taavola and I. Taboada and A. Tamburro and A. Tepe and S. Ter-Antonyan and G. Tešić and S. Tilav and P. A. Toale and S. Toscano and E. Unger and M. Usner and N. van Eijndhoven and A. Van Overloop and J. van Santen and M. Vehring and M. Voge and M. Vraeghe and C. Walck and T. Waldenmaier and M. Wallraff and Ch. Weaver and M. Wellons and C. Wendt and S. Westerhoff and N. Whitehorn and K. Wiebe and C. H. Wiebusch and D. R. Williams and H. Wissing and M. Wolf and T. R. Wood and K. Woschnagg and D. L. Xu and X. W. Xu and J. P. Yanez and G. Yodh and S. Yoshida and P. Zarzhitsky and J. Ziemann and S. Zierke and M. Zoll},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1311.5238},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
Revised version corrects the energy threshold for figure 7 (bottom) and one affiliation in the author list. The effective area (figure 7, top) is not affected and remains unchanged. The correction does not influence any of the results presented in the paper, and the text remains unchanged. Address correspondence to: Claudio Kopper, Naoko Kurahashi, Nathan Whitehorn