Constraints on Galactic Neutrino Emission with Seven Years of IceCube Data

TY - JOUR

T1 - Constraints on Galactic Neutrino Emission with Seven Years of IceCube Data

AU - Aartsen, M.G.

AU - Ackermann, M.

AU - Adams, J.

AU - Aguilar, J.A.

AU - Ahlers, Markus

AU - Ahrens, M.

AU - Al Samarai, I.

AU - Altmann, D.

AU - Andeen, K.

AU - Anderson, T.

AU - Ansseau, I.

AU - Anton, G.

AU - Arguelles, C.

AU - Auffenberg, J.

AU - Axani, S.

AU - Medici, Morten Ankersen

AU - Larson, Michael James

AU - Koskinen, D. Jason

AU - Sarkar, Subir

AU - Rameez, M

AU - Collin, CH

AU - Cross, R.

AU - Blot, S.

AU - Huber, B

AU - Wood, J.

AU - Wille, L.

PY - 2017/11/1

Y1 - 2017/11/1

N2 - The origins of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos remain a mystery despite extensive searches for their sources. We present constraints from seven years of IceCube Neutrino Observatory muon data on the neutrino flux coming from the Galactic plane. This flux is expected from cosmic-ray interactions with the interstellar medium or near localized sources. Two methods were developed to test for a spatially extended flux from the entire plane, both of which are maximum likelihood fits but with different signal and background modeling techniques. We consider three templates for Galactic neutrino emission based primarily on gamma-ray observations and models that cover a wide range of possibilities. Based on these templates and in the benchmark case of an unbroken E-2.5 power-law energy spectrum, we set 90% confidence level upper limits, constraining the possible Galactic contribution to the diffuse neutrino flux to be relatively small, less than 14% of the flux reported in Aartsen et al. above 1 TeV. A stacking method is also used to test catalogs of known high-energy Galactic gamma-ray sources.

AB - The origins of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos remain a mystery despite extensive searches for their sources. We present constraints from seven years of IceCube Neutrino Observatory muon data on the neutrino flux coming from the Galactic plane. This flux is expected from cosmic-ray interactions with the interstellar medium or near localized sources. Two methods were developed to test for a spatially extended flux from the entire plane, both of which are maximum likelihood fits but with different signal and background modeling techniques. We consider three templates for Galactic neutrino emission based primarily on gamma-ray observations and models that cover a wide range of possibilities. Based on these templates and in the benchmark case of an unbroken E-2.5 power-law energy spectrum, we set 90% confidence level upper limits, constraining the possible Galactic contribution to the diffuse neutrino flux to be relatively small, less than 14% of the flux reported in Aartsen et al. above 1 TeV. A stacking method is also used to test catalogs of known high-energy Galactic gamma-ray sources.

U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/aa8dfb

DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/aa8dfb

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0004-637X

VL - 849

JO - Astrophysical Journal

JF - Astrophysical Journal

IS - 1

M1 - 67

ER -