First search for atmospheric and extraterrestrial neutrino-induced cascades with the IceCube detector
ArXiv 1101.1692 (2011)
Authors:
IceCube Collaboration, R Abbasi, Y Abdou, T Abu-Zayyad, J Adams, JA Aguilar, M Ahlers, K Andeen, J Auffenberg, X Bai, M Baker, SW Barwick, R Bay, JL Bazo Alba, K Beattie, JJ Beatty, S Bechet, JK Becker, K-H Becker, ML Benabderrahmane, S BenZvi, J Berdermann, P Berghaus, D Berley, E Bernardini, D Bertrand, DZ Besson, D Bindig, M Bissok, E Blaufuss, J Blumenthal, DJ Boersma, C Bohm, D Bose, S B, oser, O Botner, J Braun, AM Brown, S Buitink, M Carson, D Chirkin, B Christy, J Clem, F Clevermann, S Cohen, C Colnard, DF Cowen, MV D'Agostino, M Danninger, J Daughhetee, JC Davis, C De Clercq, L Demir, ors, T Denger, O Depaepe, F Descamps, P Desiati, G de Vries-Uiterweerd, T DeYoung, JC D'iaz-Vélez, M Dierckxsens, J Dreyer, JP Dumm, R Ehrlich, J Eisch, RW Ellsworth, O Engdeg aard, S Euler, PA Evenson, O Fadiran, AR Fazely, A Fedynitch, T Feusels, K Filimonov, C Finley, T Fischer-Wasels, MM Foerster, BD Fox, A Franckowiak, R Franke, TK Gaisser, J Gallagher, M Geisler, L Gerhardt, L Gladstone, T Glüsenkamp, A Goldschmidt, JA Goodman, D Grant, T Griesel, A Gross, S Grullon, M Gurtner, C Ha, A Hallgren, F Halzen, K Han, K Hanson, D Heinen, K Helbing, P Herquet, S Hickford, GC Hill, KD Hoffman, A Homeier, K Hoshina, D Hubert, W Huelsnitz, J-P Hülß, PO Hulth, K Hultqvist, S Hussain, A Ishihara, J Jacobsen, GS Japaridze, H Johansson, JM Joseph, K-H Kampert, A Kappes, T Karg, A Karle, JL Kelley, P Kenny, J Kiryluk, F Kislat, SR Klein, J-H Köhne, G Kohnen, H Kolanoski, L Köpke, S Kopper, DJ Koskinen, M Kowalski, T Kowarik, M Krasberg, T Krings, G Kroll, K Kuehn, T Kuwabara, M Labare, S Lafebre, K Laihem, H Landsman, MJ Larson, R Lauer, J Lünemann, J Madsen, P Majumdar, A Marotta, R Maruyama, K Mase, HS Matis, K Meagher, M Merck, P Mészáros, T Meures, E Middell, N Milke, J Miller, T Montaruli, R Morse, SM Movit, R Nahnhauer, JW Nam, U Naumann, P Nießen, DR Nygren, S Odrowski, A Olivas, M Olivo, A O'Murchadha, M Ono, S Panknin, L Paul, C Pérez de los Heros, J Petrovic, A Piegsa, D Pieloth, R Porrata, J Posselt, PB Price, M Prikockis, GT Przybylski, K Rawlins, P Redl, E Resconi, W Rhode, M Ribordy, A Rizzo, JP Rodrigues, P Roth, F Rothmaier, C Rott, T Ruhe, D Rutledge, B Ruzybayev, D Ryckbosch, H-G Sander, M Santander, S Sarkar, K Schatto, T Schmidt, A Schoenwald, A Schukraft, A Schultes, O Schulz, M Schunck, D Seckel, B Semburg, SH Seo, Y Sestayo, S Seunarine, A Silvestri, A Slipak, GM Spiczak, C Spiering, M Stamatikos, T Stanev, G Stephens, T Stezelberger, RG Stokstad, S Stoyanov, EA Strahler, T Straszheim, M Stür, GW Sullivan, Q Swillens, H Taavola, I Taboada, A Tamburro, O Tarasova, A Tepe, S Ter-Antonyan, S Tilav, PA Toale, S Toscano, D Tosi, D Tur V can, N van Eijndhoven, J Vandenbroucke, A Van Overloop, J van Santen, M Vehring, M Voge, B Voigt, C Walck, T Waldenmaier, M Wallraff, M Walter, Ch Weaver, C Wendt, S Westerhoff, N Whitehorn, K Wiebe, CH Wiebusch, DR Williams, R Wischnewski, H Wissing, M Wolf, K Woschnagg, C Xu, XW Xu, G Yodh, S Yoshida, P Zarzhitsky
Abstract:
We report on the first search for atmospheric and for diffuse astrophysical neutrino-induced showers (cascades) in the IceCube detector using 257 days of data collected in the year 2007-2008 with 22 strings active. A total of 14 events with energies above 16 TeV remained after event selections in the diffuse analysis, with an expected total background contribution of $8.3\pm 3.6$. At 90% confidence we set an upper limit of $E^2Φ_{90%CL}<3.6\times10^{-7} GeV \cdot cm^{-2} \cdot s^{-1}\cdot sr^{-1} $ on the diffuse flux of neutrinos of all flavors in the energy range between 24 TeV and 6.6 PeV assuming that $Φ\propto E^{-2}$ and that the flavor composition of the $ν_e : ν_μ: ν_τ$ flux is $1 : 1 : 1$ at the Earth. The atmospheric neutrino analysis was optimized for lower energies. A total of 12 events were observed with energies above 5 TeV. The observed number of events is consistent with the expected background, within the uncertainties.
