Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Probing the origin of cosmic rays with extremely high energy neutrinos using the IceCube Observatory

ContributorsIceCube Collaboration
Publication date2013
Abstract

We have searched for extremely high energy neutrinos using data taken with the IceCube detector between May 2010 and May 2012. Two neutrino-induced particle shower events with energies around 1 PeV were observed, as reported previously. In this work, we investigate whether these events could originate from cosmogenic neutrinos produced in the interactions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays with ambient photons while propagating through intergalactic space. Exploiting IceCube's large exposure for extremely high energy neutrinos and the lack of observed events above 100 PeV, we can rule out the corresponding models at more than 90% confidence level. The model-independent quasidifferential 90% C.L. upper limit, which amounts to E2ϕνe+νμ+ντ=1.2×10−7  GeV cm−2 s−1 sr−1 at 1 EeV, provides the most stringent constraint in the energy range from 10 PeV to 10 EeV. Our observation disfavors strong cosmological evolution of the highest energy cosmic-ray sources such as the Fanaroff-Riley type II class of radio galaxies.

Citation (ISO format)
IceCube Collaboration. Probing the origin of cosmic rays with extremely high energy neutrinos using the IceCube Observatory. In: Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology, 2013, vol. 88, n° 11, p. 112008. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.88.112008
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
Journal ISSN1550-2368
553views
162downloads

Technical informations

Creation07/28/2014 3:25:00 PM
First validation07/28/2014 3:25:00 PM
Update time03/14/2023 9:28:45 PM
Status update03/14/2023 9:28:45 PM
Last indexation10/30/2024 7:33:38 PM
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack