Observation of high-energy neutrinos from the Galactic plane.
Science (New York, N.Y.) 380:6652 (2023) 1338-1343
Authors:
IceCube Collaboration*†, R Abbasi, M Ackermann, J Adams, JA Aguilar, M Ahlers, M Ahrens, JM Alameddine, AA Alves, NM Amin, K Andeen, T Anderson, G Anton, C Argüelles, Y Ashida, S Athanasiadou, S Axani, X Bai, A Balagopal V, SW Barwick, V Basu, S Baur, R Bay, JJ Beatty, K-H Becker, J Becker Tjus, J Beise, C Bellenghi, S Benda, S BenZvi, D Berley, E Bernardini, DZ Besson, G Binder, D Bindig, E Blaufuss, S Blot, M Boddenberg, F Bontempo, JY Book, J Borowka, S Böser, O Botner, J Böttcher, E Bourbeau, F Bradascio, J Braun, B Brinson, S Bron, J Brostean-Kaiser, RT Burley, RS Busse, MA Campana, EG Carnie-Bronca, C Chen, Z Chen, D Chirkin, K Choi, BA Clark, K Clark, L Classen, A Coleman, GH Collin, A Connolly, JM Conrad, P Coppin, P Correa, DF Cowen, R Cross, C Dappen, P Dave, C De Clercq, JJ DeLaunay, D Delgado López, H Dembinski, K Deoskar, A Desai, P Desiati, KD de Vries, G de Wasseige, T DeYoung, A Diaz, JC Díaz-Vélez, M Dittmer, H Dujmovic, M Dunkman, MA DuVernois, T Ehrhardt, P Eller, R Engel, H Erpenbeck, J Evans, PA Evenson, KL Fan, AR Fazely, A Fedynitch, N Feigl, S Fiedlschuster, AT Fienberg, C Finley, L Fischer, D Fox, A Franckowiak, E Friedman, A Fritz, P Fürst, TK Gaisser, J Gallagher, E Ganster, A Garcia, S Garrappa, L Gerhardt, A Ghadimi, C Glaser, T Glauch, T Glüsenkamp, N Goehlke, A Goldschmidt, JG Gonzalez, S Goswami, D Grant, T Grégoire, S Griswold, C Günther, P Gutjahr, C Haack, A Hallgren, R Halliday, L Halve, F Halzen, M Ha Minh, K Hanson, J Hardin, AA Harnisch, A Haungs, K Helbing, F Henningsen, EC Hettinger, S Hickford, J Hignight, C Hill, GC Hill, KD Hoffman, K Hoshina, W Hou, F Huang, M Huber, T Huber, K Hultqvist, M Hünnefeld, R Hussain, K Hymon, S In, N Iovine, A Ishihara, M Jansson, GS Japaridze, M Jeong, M Jin, BJP Jones, D Kang, W Kang, X Kang, A Kappes, D Kappesser, L Kardum, T Karg, M Karl, A Karle, U Katz, M Kauer, M Kellermann, JL Kelley, A Kheirandish, K Kin, J Kiryluk, SR Klein, A Kochocki, R Koirala, H Kolanoski, T Kontrimas, L Köpke, C Kopper, S Kopper, DJ Koskinen, P Koundal, M Kovacevich, M Kowalski, T Kozynets, E Krupczak, E Kun, N Kurahashi, N Lad, C Lagunas Gualda, JL Lanfranchi, MJ Larson, F Lauber, JP Lazar, JW Lee, K Leonard, A Leszczyńska, Y Li, M Lincetto, QR Liu, M Liubarska, E Lohfink, CJ Lozano Mariscal, L Lu, F Lucarelli, A Ludwig, W Luszczak, Y Lyu, WY Ma, J Madsen, KBM Mahn, Y Makino, S Mancina, IC Mariş, I Martinez-Soler, R Maruyama, S McHale, T McElroy, F McNally, JV Mead, K Meagher, S Mechbal, A Medina, M Meier, S Meighen-Berger, Y Merckx, J Micallef, D Mockler, T Montaruli, RW Moore, K Morik, R Morse, M Moulai, T Mukherjee, R Naab, R Nagai, R Nahnhauer, U Naumann, J Necker, LV Nguyen, H Niederhausen, MU Nisa, SC Nowicki, D Nygren, A Obertacke Pollmann, M Oehler, B Oeyen, A Olivas, E O'Sullivan, H Pandya, DV Pankova, N Park, GK Parker, EN Paudel, L Paul, C Pérez de Los Heros, L Peters, J Peterson, S Philippen, S Pieper, A Pizzuto, M Plum, Y Popovych, A Porcelli, M Prado Rodriguez, B Pries, GT Przybylski, C Raab, J Rack-Helleis, A Raissi, M Rameez, K Rawlins, IC Rea, Z Rechav, A Rehman, P Reichherzer, R Reimann, G Renzi, E Resconi, S Reusch, W Rhode, M Richman, B Riedel, EJ Roberts, S Robertson, G Roellinghoff, M Rongen, C Rott, T Ruhe, D Ryckbosch, D Rysewyk Cantu, I Safa, J Saffer, D Salazar-Gallegos, P Sampathkumar, SE Sanchez Herrera, A Sandrock, M Santander, S Sarkar, S Sarkar, K Satalecka, M Schaufel, H Schieler, S Schindler, T Schmidt, A Schneider, J Schneider, FG Schröder, L Schumacher, G Schwefer, S Sclafani, D Seckel, S Seunarine, A Sharma, S Shefali, N Shimizu, M Silva, B Skrzypek, B Smithers, R Snihur, J Soedingrekso, A Sogaard, D Soldin, C Spannfellner, GM Spiczak, C Spiering, M Stamatikos, T Stanev, R Stein, J Stettner, T Stezelberger, B Stokstad, T Stürwald, T Stuttard, GW Sullivan, I Taboada, S Ter-Antonyan, J Thwaites, S Tilav, F Tischbein, K Tollefson, C Tönnis, S Toscano, D Tosi, A Trettin, M Tselengidou, CF Tung, A Turcati, R Turcotte, CF Turley, JP Twagirayezu, B Ty, MA Unland Elorrieta, N Valtonen-Mattila, J Vandenbroucke, N van Eijndhoven, D Vannerom, J van Santen, J Veitch-Michaelis, S Verpoest, C Walck, W Wang, TB Watson, C Weaver, P Weigel, A Weindl, MJ Weiss, J Weldert, C Wendt, J Werthebach, M Weyrauch, N Whitehorn, CH Wiebusch, N Willey, DR Williams, M Wolf, G Wrede, J Wulff, XW Xu, JP Yanez, E Yildizci, S Yoshida, S Yu, T Yuan, Z Zhang, P Zhelnin
Abstract:
The origin of high-energy cosmic rays, atomic nuclei that continuously impact Earth's atmosphere, is unknown. Because of deflection by interstellar magnetic fields, cosmic rays produced within the Milky Way arrive at Earth from random directions. However, cosmic rays interact with matter near their sources and during propagation, which produces high-energy neutrinos. We searched for neutrino emission using machine learning techniques applied to 10 years of data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. By comparing diffuse emission models to a background-only hypothesis, we identified neutrino emission from the Galactic plane at the 4.5σ level of significance. The signal is consistent with diffuse emission of neutrinos from the Milky Way but could also arise from a population of unresolved point sources.