TY - JOUR
T1 - Do high energy astrophysical neutrinos trace star formation?
AU - Emig, Kimberly
AU - Lunardini, Cecilia
AU - Windhorst, Rogier
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl .
PY - 2015/12/14
Y1 - 2015/12/14
N2 - The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has provided the first map of the high energy (∼ 0.01-1 PeV) sky in neutrinos. Since neutrinos propagate undeflected, their arrival direction is an important identifier for sources of high energy particle acceleration. Reconstructed arrival directions are consistent with an extragalactic origin, with possibly a galactic component, of the neutrino flux. We present a statistical analysis of positional coincidences of the IceCube neutrinos with known astrophysical objects from several catalogs. When considering starburst galaxies with the highest flux in gamma-rays and infrared radiation, up to n=8 coincidences are found, representing an excess over the ∼4 predicted for the randomized, or ''null'' distribution. The probability that this excess is realized in the null case, the p-value, is p=0.042. This value falls to p=0.003 for a partial subset of gamma-ray-detected starburst galaxies and superbubble regions in the galactic neighborhood. Therefore, it is possible that starburst galaxies, and the typically hundreds of superbubble regions within them, might account for a portion of IceCube neutrinos. The physical plausibility of such correlation is discussed briefly.
AB - The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has provided the first map of the high energy (∼ 0.01-1 PeV) sky in neutrinos. Since neutrinos propagate undeflected, their arrival direction is an important identifier for sources of high energy particle acceleration. Reconstructed arrival directions are consistent with an extragalactic origin, with possibly a galactic component, of the neutrino flux. We present a statistical analysis of positional coincidences of the IceCube neutrinos with known astrophysical objects from several catalogs. When considering starburst galaxies with the highest flux in gamma-rays and infrared radiation, up to n=8 coincidences are found, representing an excess over the ∼4 predicted for the randomized, or ''null'' distribution. The probability that this excess is realized in the null case, the p-value, is p=0.042. This value falls to p=0.003 for a partial subset of gamma-ray-detected starburst galaxies and superbubble regions in the galactic neighborhood. Therefore, it is possible that starburst galaxies, and the typically hundreds of superbubble regions within them, might account for a portion of IceCube neutrinos. The physical plausibility of such correlation is discussed briefly.
KW - gamma ray experiments
KW - neutrino astronomy
KW - neutrino experiments
KW - star formation
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U2 - 10.1088/1475-7516/2015/12/029
DO - 10.1088/1475-7516/2015/12/029
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84953885780
SN - 1475-7516
VL - 2015
JO - Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
JF - Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
IS - 12
M1 - 029
ER -