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O'Sullivan, Erin
Publications (10 of 43) Show all publications
Ayala Solares, H. A., Ahrens, M., Bohm, C., Deoskar, K., Finley, C., Hultqvist, K., . . . Zöcklein, M. (2021). Multimessenger Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Coincidence Alerts Using HAWC and IceCube Subthreshold Data. Astrophysical Journal, 906(1), Article ID 63.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Multimessenger Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Coincidence Alerts Using HAWC and IceCube Subthreshold Data
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2021 (English)In: Astrophysical Journal, ISSN 0004-637X, E-ISSN 1538-4357, Vol. 906, no 1, article id 63Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The High Altitude Water Cerenkov (HAWC) and IceCube observatories, through the Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON) framework, have developed a multimessenger joint search for extragalactic astrophysical sources. This analysis looks for sources that emit both cosmic neutrinos and gamma rays that are produced in photohadronic or hadronic interactions. The AMON system is running continuously, receiving subthreshold data (i.e., data that are not suited on their own to do astrophysical searches) from HAWC and IceCube, and combining them in real time. Here we present the analysis algorithm, as well as results from archival data collected between 2015 June and 2018 August, with a total live time of 3.0 yr. During this period we found two coincident events that have a false-alarm rate (FAR) of <1 coincidence yr(-1), consistent with the background expectations. The real-time implementation of the analysis in the AMON system began on 2019 November 20 and issues alerts to the community through the Gamma-ray Coordinates Network with an FAR threshold of <4 coincidences yr(-1).

National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-190056 (URN)10.3847/1538-4357/abcaa4 (DOI)000605929400001 ()2-s2.0-85099201917 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2021-02-23 Created: 2021-02-23 Last updated: 2022-11-11Bibliographically approved
Ahrens, M., Bohm, C., Deoskar, K., Finley, C., Hultqvist, K., O'Sullivan, E. & Walck, C. (2021). Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2021(02), Article ID 025.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data
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2021 (English)In: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, E-ISSN 1475-7516, Vol. 2021, no 02, article id 025Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Cosmic-ray interactions with the solar atmosphere are expected to produce particle showers which in turn produce neutrinos from weak decays of mesons. These solar atmospheric neutrinos (SAνs) have never been observed experimentally. A detection would be an important step in understanding cosmic-ray propagation in the inner solar system and the dynamics of solar magnetic fields. SAνs also represent an irreducible background to solar dark matter searches and a detection would allow precise characterization of this background. Here, we present the first experimental search based on seven years of data collected from May 2010 to May 2017 in the austral winter with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. An unbinned likelihood analysis is performed for events reconstructed within 5 degrees of the center of the Sun. No evidence for a SAν flux is observed. After inclusion of systematic uncertainties, we set a 90% upper limit of 1.02+0.20−0.1810−13 GeV−1cm−2s−1 at 1 TeV.

Keywords
neutrino astronomy, neutrino detectors, neutrino experiments, solar and atmospheric neutrinos
National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-191800 (URN)10.1088/1475-7516/2021/02/025 (DOI)000620675500025 ()2-s2.0-85101592689 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2021-04-27 Created: 2021-04-27 Last updated: 2023-03-28Bibliographically approved
Ahrens, M., Bohm, C., Deoskar, K., Finley, C., Hultqvist, K., O'Sullivan, E. & Walck, C. (2020). A Search for IceCube Events in the Direction of ANITA Neutrino Candidates. Astrophysical Journal, 892(1), 1-11, Article ID 53.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A Search for IceCube Events in the Direction of ANITA Neutrino Candidates
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2020 (English)In: Astrophysical Journal, ISSN 0004-637X, E-ISSN 1538-4357, Vol. 892, no 1, p. 1-11, article id 53Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

During the first three flights of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, the collaboration detected several neutrino candidates. Two of these candidate events were consistent with an ultra-high-energy upgoing air shower and compatible with a tau neutrino interpretation. A third neutrino candidate event was detected in a search for Askaryan radiation in the Antarctic ice, although it is also consistent with the background expectation. The inferred emergence angle of the first two events is in tension with IceCube and ANITA limits on isotropic cosmogenic neutrino fluxes. Here we test the hypothesis that these events are astrophysical in origin, possibly caused by a point source in the reconstructed direction. Given that any ultra-high-energy tau neutrino flux traversing the Earth should be accompanied by a secondary flux in the TeV–PeV range, we search for these secondary counterparts in 7 yr of IceCube data using three complementary approaches. In the absence of any significant detection, we set upper limits on the neutrino flux from potential point sources. We compare these limits to ANITA's sensitivity in the same direction and show that an astrophysical explanation of these anomalous events under standard model assumptions is severely constrained regardless of source spectrum.

National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-184906 (URN)10.3847/1538-4357/ab791d (DOI)000546575800001 ()
Available from: 2020-09-24 Created: 2020-09-24 Last updated: 2022-02-25Bibliographically approved
Ahrens, M., Bohm, C., Deoskar, K., Finley, C., Hultqvist, K., O'Sullivan, E. & Walck, C. (2020). A Search for MeV to TeV Neutrinos from Fast Radio Bursts with IceCube. Astrophysical Journal, 890(2), Article ID 111.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A Search for MeV to TeV Neutrinos from Fast Radio Bursts with IceCube
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2020 (English)In: Astrophysical Journal, ISSN 0004-637X, E-ISSN 1538-4357, Vol. 890, no 2, article id 111Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We present two searches for IceCube neutrino events coincident with 28 fast radio bursts (FRBs) and 1 repeating FRB. The first improves on a previous IceCube analysis-searching for spatial and temporal correlation of events with FRBs at energies greater than roughly 50 GeV-by increasing the effective area by an order of magnitude. The second is a search for temporal correlation of MeV neutrino events with FRBs. No significant correlation is found in either search; therefore, we set upper limits on the time-integrated neutrino flux emitted by FRBs for a range of emission timescales less than one day. These are the first limits on FRB neutrino emission at the MeV scale, and the limits set at higher energies are an order-of-magnitude improvement over those set by any neutrino telescope.

National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-181074 (URN)10.3847/1538-4357/ab564b (DOI)000629751100020 ()2-s2.0-85081666712 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2020-05-01 Created: 2020-05-01 Last updated: 2024-03-07Bibliographically approved
Ahrens, M., Bohm, C., Deoskar, K., Finley, C., Hultqvist, K., O'Sullivan, E. & Walck, C. (2020). A Search for Neutrino Point-source Populations in 7 yr of IceCube Data with Neutrino-count Statistics. Astrophysical Journal, 893(2), Article ID 102.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A Search for Neutrino Point-source Populations in 7 yr of IceCube Data with Neutrino-count Statistics
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2020 (English)In: Astrophysical Journal, ISSN 0004-637X, E-ISSN 1538-4357, Vol. 893, no 2, article id 102Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The presence of a population of point sources in a data set modifies the underlying neutrino-count statistics from the Poisson distribution. This deviation can be exactly quantified using the non-Poissonian template fitting technique, and in this work we present the first application of this approach to the IceCube high-energy neutrino data set. Using this method, we search in 7 yr of IceCube data for point-source populations correlated with the disk of the Milky Way, the Fermi bubbles, the Schlegel, Finkbeiner, and Davis dust map, or with the isotropic extragalactic sky. No evidence for such a population is found in the data using this technique, and in the absence of a signal, we establish constraints on population models with source-count distribution functions that can be described by a power law with a single break. The derived limits can be interpreted in the context of many possible source classes. In order to enhance the flexibility of the results, we publish the full posterior from our analysis, which can be used to establish limits on specific population models that would contribute to the observed IceCube neutrino flux.

Keywords
Astrostatistics, Astrostatistics distributions, Bayesian statistics, Neutrino astronomy, High energy astrophysics, Neutrino telescopes, Posterior distribution
National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-186281 (URN)10.3847/1538-4357/ab7af9 (DOI)000570310600001 ()2-s2.0-85085083425 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2020-10-28 Created: 2020-10-28 Last updated: 2022-11-07Bibliographically approved
Ahrens, M., Bohm, C., Deoskar, K., Finley, C., Hultqvist, K., Jansson, M., . . . Walck, C. (2020). ANTARES and IceCube Combined Search for Neutrino Point-like and Extended Sources in the Southern Sky. Astrophysical Journal, 892(2), Article ID 92.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>ANTARES and IceCube Combined Search for Neutrino Point-like and Extended Sources in the Southern Sky
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2020 (English)In: Astrophysical Journal, ISSN 0004-637X, E-ISSN 1538-4357, Vol. 892, no 2, article id 92Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

A search for point-like and extended sources of cosmic neutrinos using data collected by the ANTARES and IceCube neutrino telescopes is presented. The data set consists of all the track-like and shower-like events pointing in the direction of the Southern Sky included in the nine-year ANTARES point-source analysis, combined with the throughgoing track-like events used in the seven-year IceCube point-source search. The advantageous field of view of ANTARES and the large size of IceCube are exploited to improve the sensitivity in the Southern Sky by a factor of similar to 2 compared to both individual analyses. In this work, the Southern Sky is scanned for possible excesses of spatial clustering, and the positions of preselected candidate sources are investigated. In addition, special focus is given to the region around the Galactic Center, whereby a dedicated search at the location of SgrA* is performed, and to the location of the supernova remnant RXJ 1713.7-3946. No significant evidence for cosmic neutrino sources is found, and upper limits on the flux from the various searches are presented.

National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-186282 (URN)10.3847/1538-4357/ab7afb (DOI)000570144200001 ()2-s2.0-85085311943 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2020-10-28 Created: 2020-10-28 Last updated: 2022-11-07Bibliographically approved
Ahrens, M., Bohm, C., Deoskar, K., Finley, C., Hultqvist, K., Jansson, M., . . . Walck, C. (2020). Characteristics of the Diffuse Astrophysical Electron and Tau Neutrino Flux with Six Years of IceCube High Energy Cascade Data. Physical Review Letters, 125(12), Article ID 121104.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Characteristics of the Diffuse Astrophysical Electron and Tau Neutrino Flux with Six Years of IceCube High Energy Cascade Data
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2020 (English)In: Physical Review Letters, ISSN 0031-9007, E-ISSN 1079-7114, Vol. 125, no 12, article id 121104Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We report on the first measurement of the astrophysical neutrino flux using particle showers (cascades) in IceCube data from 2010-2015. Assuming standard oscillations, the astrophysical neutrinos in this dedicated cascade sample are dominated (similar to 90%) by electron and tau flavors. The flux, observed in the sensitive energy range from 16 TeV to 2.6 PeV, is consistent with a single power-law model as expected from Fermi-type acceleration of high energy particles at astrophysical sources. We find the flux spectral index to be gamma = 2.53 +/- 0.07 and a flux normalization for each neutrino flavor of phi(astro) = 1.66(-0.27)(+0.25) at E-0 = 100 TeV, in agreement with IceCube's complementary muon neutrino results and with all-neutrino flavor fit results. In the measured energy range we reject spectral indices gamma <= 2.28 at >= 3 sigma significance level. Because of high neutrino energy resolution and low atmospheric neutrino backgrounds, this analysis provides the most detailed characterization of the neutrino flux at energies below similar to 100 TeV compared to previous IceCube results. Results from fits assuming more complex neutrino flux models suggest a flux softening at high energies and a flux hardening at low energies (p value >= 0.06). The sizable and smooth flux measured below similar to 100 TeV remains a puzzle. In order to not violate the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray background as measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope, it suggests the existence of astrophysical neutrino sources characterized by dense environments which are opaque to gamma rays.

National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-186374 (URN)10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.121104 (DOI)000570032100002 ()33016752 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85092364529 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2020-11-22 Created: 2020-11-22 Last updated: 2022-11-07Bibliographically approved
Ahrens, M., Bohm, C., Deoskar, K., Finley, C., Hultqvist, K., Jansson, M., . . . Walck, C. (2020). Combined search for neutrinos from dark matter self-annihilation in the Galactic Center with ANTARES and IceCube. Physical Review D: covering particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology, 102(8), Article ID 082002.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Combined search for neutrinos from dark matter self-annihilation in the Galactic Center with ANTARES and IceCube
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2020 (English)In: Physical Review D: covering particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology, ISSN 2470-0010, E-ISSN 2470-0029, Vol. 102, no 8, article id 082002Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We present the results of the first combined dark matter search targeting the Galactic Center using the ANTARES and IceCube neutrino telescopes. For dark matter particles with masses from 50 to 1000 GeV, the sensitivities on the self-annihilation cross section set by ANTARES and IceCube are comparable, making this mass range particularly interesting for a joint analysis. Dark matter self-annihilation through the tau(+)tau(-) , mu(+)mu(-) , b (b) over bar, and W+W- channels is considered for both the Navarro-Frenk-White and Burkert halo profiles. In the combination of 2101.6 days of ANTARES data and 1007 days of IceCube data, no excess over the expected background is observed. Limits on the thermally averaged dark matter annihilation cross section <sigma(A)upsilon > are set. These limits present an improvement of up to a factor of 2 in the studied dark matter mass range with respect to the individual limits published by both collaborations. When considering dark matter particles with a mass of 200 GeV annihilating through the tau(+)tau(-)channel, the value obtained for the limit is 7.44 x 10(-24) cm(3) s(-1 )for the Navarro-Frenk-White halo profile. For the purpose of this joint analysis, the model parameters and the likelihood are unified, providing a benchmark for forthcoming dark matter searches performed by neutrino telescopes.

National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-188218 (URN)10.1103/PhysRevD.102.082002 (DOI)000582565500001 ()2-s2.0-85096507818 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2020-12-29 Created: 2020-12-29 Last updated: 2022-11-07Bibliographically approved
Ahrens, M., Bohm, C., Deoskar, K., Finley, C., Hultqvist, K., O'Sullivan, E. & Walck, C. (2020). Combined sensitivity to the neutrino mass ordering with JUNO, the IceCube Upgrade, and PINGU. Physical Review D: covering particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology, 101(3), Article ID 032006.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Combined sensitivity to the neutrino mass ordering with JUNO, the IceCube Upgrade, and PINGU
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2020 (English)In: Physical Review D: covering particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology, ISSN 2470-0010, E-ISSN 2470-0029, Vol. 101, no 3, article id 032006Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The ordering of the neutrino mass eigenstates is one of the fundamental open questions in neutrino physics. While current-generation neutrino oscillation experiments are able to produce moderate indications on this ordering, upcoming experiments of the next generation aim to provide conclusive evidence. In this paper we study the combined performance of the two future multi-purpose neutrino oscillation experiments JUNO and the IceCube Upgrade, which employ two very distinct and complementary routes toward the neutrino mass ordering. The approach pursued by the 20 kt medium-baseline reactor neutrino experiment JUNO consists of a careful investigation of the energy spectrum of oscillated (nu) over bar (e) produced by ten nuclear reactor cores. The IceCube Upgrade, on the other hand, which consists of seven additional densely instrumented strings deployed in the center of IceCube DeepCore, will observe large numbers of atmospheric neutrinos that have undergone oscillations affected by Earth matter. In a joint fit with both approaches, tension occurs between their preferred mass-squared differences Delta m(31)(2) = m(3)(2) - m(1)(2) in within the wrong mass ordering. In the case of JUNO and the IceCube Upgrade, this allows to exclude the wrong ordering at > 5 sigma on a timescale of 3-7 years-even under circumstances that are unfavorable to the experiments individual sensitivities. For PINGU, a 26-string detector array designed as a potential low-energy extension to IceCube, the inverted ordering could be excluded within 1.5 years (3 years for the normal ordering) in a joint analysis.

National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-180393 (URN)10.1103/PhysRevD.101.032006 (DOI)000515060600001 ()
Available from: 2020-03-31 Created: 2020-03-31 Last updated: 2022-03-23Bibliographically approved
Ahrens, M., Bohm, C., Deoskar, K., Finley, C., Hultqvist, K., O'Sullivan, E. & Walck, C. (2020). Computational techniques for the analysis of small signals in high-statistics neutrino oscillation experiments. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 977, Article ID 164332.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Computational techniques for the analysis of small signals in high-statistics neutrino oscillation experiments
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2020 (English)In: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, ISSN 0168-9002, E-ISSN 1872-9576, Vol. 977, article id 164332Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The current and upcoming generation of Very Large Volume Neutrino Telescopes - collecting unprecedented quantities of neutrino events - can be used to explore subtle effects in oscillation physics, such as (but not restricted to) the neutrino mass ordering. The sensitivity of an experiment to these effects can be estimated from Monte Carlo simulations. With the high number of events that will be collected, there is a trade-off between the computational expense of running such simulations and the inherent statistical uncertainty in the determined values. In such a scenario, it becomes impractical to produce and use adequately-sized sets of simulated events with traditional methods, such as Monte Carlo weighting. In this work we present a staged approach to the generation of expected distributions of observables in order to overcome these challenges. By combining multiple integration and smoothing techniques which address limited statistics from simulation it arrives at reliable analysis results using modest computational resources.

Keywords
Data analysis, Monte Carlo, MC, Statistics, Smoothing, KDE, Neutrino, Neutrino mass ordering, Detector, FVLV nu T
National Category
Other Engineering and Technologies Mechanical Engineering Physical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-186134 (URN)10.1016/j.nima.2020.164332 (DOI)000571579500012 ()2-s2.0-85087620956 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2020-11-02 Created: 2020-11-02 Last updated: 2022-11-07Bibliographically approved
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