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 about 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 28 events at the 4σ level. These 28 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.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- November 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1242856
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1311.5238
- Bibcode:
- 2013Sci...342E...1I
- Keywords:
-
- ASTRONOMY, ONLINE Materials-Science, Sociology, Applied-Physics;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics;
- High Energy Physics - Experiment
- E-Print:
- 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