Search for High-energy Neutrinos from Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies with IceCube

Language
en
Document Type
Article
Issue Date
2022-02-17
First published
2022-02-11
Issue Year
2022
Authors
Abbasi, R.
Ackermann, M.
Adams, J.
Aguilar, J. A.
Ahlers, M.
Ahrens, M.
Alispach, C.
Alves, A. A.
Amin, N. M.
An, R.
Editor
Publisher
The American Astronomical Society
Abstract

AbstractUltraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) have infrared luminosities LIR ≥ 1012L⊙, making them the most luminous objects in the infrared sky. These dusty objects are generally powered by starbursts with star formation rates that exceed 100 M⊙ yr−1, possibly combined with a contribution from an active galactic nucleus. Such environments make ULIRGs plausible sources of astrophysical high-energy neutrinos, which can be observed by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. We present a stacking search for high-energy neutrinos from a representative sample of 75 ULIRGs with redshift z ≤ 0.13 using 7.5 yr of IceCube data. The results are consistent with a background-only observation, yielding upper limits on the neutrino flux from these 75 ULIRGs. For an unbroken E−2.5 power-law spectrum, we report an upper limit on the stacked Φνμ+ν¯μ90%=3.24×10−14TeV−1cm−2s−1(E/10TeV)−2 at 90% confidence level. In addition, we constrain the contribution of the ULIRG source population to the observed diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux as well as model predictions.

Journal Title
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume
926
Issue
1
Citation
The Astrophysical Journal 926.1 (2022): 59. <https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ac3cb6>