Galactic Center origin of a subset of IceCube neutrino events
Abstract
The center of the Milky Way is a host to energetic phenomena across many electromagnetic wave bands and now possibly of high-energy neutrinos. We show that 5 out of 21 IceCube showerlike events, including a PeV event, likely originated from the Galactic Center region. A hard spectrum and flux inferred from these events are inconsistent with atmospheric neutrinos. The flux of these neutrinos is consistent with an extrapolation of the gamma-ray flux measured by Fermi-LAT from the inner Galactic region. This indicates a common hadronic origin of both, powered by supernovae. Three other showerlike events are spatially correlated with the Fermi bubbles, originating from the Galactic Center activity, within the uncertainty of reconstructing their arrival directions. The origin of the other neutrino events, including 7 tracklike events, is still elusive.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review D
- Pub Date:
- October 2013
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1309.2756
- Bibcode:
- 2013PhRvD..88h1302R
- Keywords:
-
- 95.85.Ry;
- 98.70.Sa;
- 14.60.Pq;
- Neutrino muon pion and other elementary particles;
- cosmic rays;
- Cosmic rays;
- Neutrino mass and mixing;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in PRD Rapid Communication