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Abstract
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a km³ detector which recently completed construction at the geographic South Pole. Here we present four searches for flaring point-sources sources of neutrinos using IceCube data using maximum-likelihood techniques. For the first time, a search is performed over the entire parameter space of energy, direction and time with sensitivity to neutrino flares lasting between 20 μs and a year duration from astrophysical sources. This work is also an important step for the IceCube experiment in utilizing a multi-messenger approach, driving IceCube neutrino analysis with information from photon observatories. The use of time information is useful since integrated searches over time are less sensitive to flares as they are affected by a larger background of atmospheric neutrinos and moons that can be reduced by the use of additional timing information. Flaring sources considered here, such as active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts, are promising candidate neutrino emitters.
One search is "untriggered" in the sense that it looks for any possible flare in the entire sky. The other two searches are triggered by multi-wavelength information on flares. One triggered search uses lightcurves from Fermi-LAT which provides continuous monitoring. A second triggered search uses information where the flux states have been measured only for short periods of time near the flares. A search for periodic emission of neutrinos is also performed on binary systems in the galaxy which are thought to be sources of particle acceleration. The searches use data taken by 40 strings of IceCube between Apr 5, 2008 and May 20, 2009 and by 59 strings of IceCube between May 20, 2009 and May 31, 2010. The results from all searches are compatible with a fluctuation of the background.
