English

Measurement of the Atmospheric $\nu_e$ flux in IceCube

High Energy Physics - Experiment 2013-04-23 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

We report the first measurement of the atmospheric electron neutrino flux in the energy range between approximately 80 GeV and 6 TeV, using data recorded during the first year of operation of IceCube's DeepCore low energy extension. Techniques to identify neutrinos interacting within the DeepCore volume and veto muons originating outside the detector are demonstrated. A sample of 1029 events is observed in 281 days of data, of which 496 ±\pm 66(stat.) ±\pm 88(syst.) are estimated to be cascade events, including both electron neutrino and neutral current events. The rest of the sample includes residual backgrounds due to atmospheric muons and charged current interactions of atmospheric muon neutrinos. The flux of the atmospheric electron neutrinos is consistent with models of atmospheric neutrinos in this energy range. This constitutes the first observation of electron neutrinos and neutral current interactions in a very large volume neutrino telescope optimized for the TeV energy range.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1212.4760,
  title  = {Measurement of the Atmospheric $\nu_e$ flux in IceCube},
  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 K. Andeen and J. Auffenberg and X. Bai and M. Baker and S. W. Barwick and V. Baum and R. Bay and K. Beattie and J. J. Beatty and S. Bechet and J. Becker Tjus and K. -H. Becker and M. Bell and M. L. Benabderrahmane and S. BenZvi and J. Berdermann and P. Berghaus and D. Berley and E. Bernardini and D. Bertrand and D. Z. Besson and D. Bindig and M. Bissok and E. Blaufuss and J. Blumenthal and D. J. Boersma and S. Bohaichuk and C. Bohm and D. Bose1 and S. Boser and O. Botner and L. Brayeur and A. M. Brown and R. Bruijn and J. Brunner and S. Buitink and M. Carson and J. Casey and M. Casier and D. Chirkin and B. Christy and K. Clark and F. Clevermann and S. Cohen and D. F. Cowen and A. H. Cruz Silva and M. Danninger and J. Daughhetee and J. C. Davis and C. De Clercq and S. De Ridder and F. Descamps and P. Desiati and G. de Vries-Uiterweerd and T. DeYoung and J. C. Diaz-Velez and J. Dreyer and J. P. Dumm and M. Dunkman and R. Eagan and B. Eberhardt and J. Eisch and R. W. Ellsworth and O. Engdegard 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 R. Franke and K. Frantzen and T. Fuchs and T. K. Gaisser and J. Gallagher and L. Gerhardt and L. Gladstone and T. Glusenkamp and A. Goldschmidt and G. Golup and J. A. Goodman and D. Gora and D. Grant and A. Gross and S. Grullon and M. Gurtner and C. Ha and A. Haj Ismail and A. Hallgren and F. Halzen and K. Hanson and D. Heereman and P. Heimann 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 G. S. Japaridze and O. Jlelati and A. Kappes and T. Karg and A. Karle and J. Kiryluk and F. Kislat and J. Klas and S. R. Klein and J. -H. Kohne and G. Kohnen and H. Kolanoski and L. Kopke and C. Kopper and S. Kopper and D. J. Koskinen and M. Kowalski and M. Krasberg and G. Kroll and J. Kunnen and N. Kurahashi and T. Kuwabara and M. Labare and H. Landsman and M. J. Larson and R. Lauer and M. Lesiak-Bzdak and J. Lunemann and J. Madsen and R. Maruyama and K. Mase and H. S. Matis and F. McNally and K. Meagher and M. Merck and P. Meszaros 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 S. C. Nowicki and D. R. Nygren and A. Obertacke and S. Odrowski and A. Olivas and M. Olivo and A. O'Murchadha and S. Panknin and L. Paul and J. A. Pepper and C. Perez de los Heros and D. Pieloth and N. Pirk and J. Posselt and P. B. Price and G. T. Przybylski and L. Radel and K. Rawlins and P. Redl 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 M. Scheel and F. Scheriau and T. Schmidt and M. Schmitz and S. Schoenen and S. Schoneberg and L. Schonherr and A. Schonwald and A. Schukraft and L. Schulte and O. Schulz and D. Seckel and S. H. Seo and Y. Sestayo and S. Seunarine and C. Sheremata and M. W. E. Smith and M. Soiron 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. Stoss and E. A. Strahler and R. Strom and G. W. Sullivan and H. Taavola and I. Taboada and A. Tamburro and S. Ter-Antonyan and S. Tilav and P. A. Toale and S. Toscano and M. Usner and D. van der Drift and N. van Eijndhoven and A. Van Overloop and J. van Santen and M. Vehring and M. Voge1 and M. Vraeghe and C. Walck and T. Waldenmaier and M. Wallraff and M. Walter and R. Wasserman and Ch. Weaver 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 C. Xu 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 A. Zilles and M. Zoll},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.4760},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

7 pages, 4 figures (accepted by PRL)