28 June 2026 to 10 July 2026
US/Pacific timezone

Searching for Neutrino Sources in the Galactic Plane with IceCube

Not scheduled
20m

Speaker

Alejandra Maria Granados Hernandez (Michigan State University)

Description

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, located at the South Pole, covers a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice to detect astrophysical neutrinos in the TeV-PeV energy range. While IceCube has recently identified the existence of a diffuse flux of neutrinos originating from the Galactic Plane, the identification of individual sources within the Milky Way remains elusive. Both neutrinos and gamma rays are produced in hadronic interactions. Gamma rays, originating from the decay of neutral pions, exhibit a characteristic spectral feature known as the “pion bump” around 200 MeV. Recent studies by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration have identified 56 sources in the 4FGL catalog that display such features. Detection of neutrinos from these sources would provide strong evidence for cosmic-ray acceleration in their environments. In this analysis, we search for astrophysical neutrino emission from 56 sources showing characteristics of a pion bump using 13 years of IceCube data. Our findings could enhance our understanding of potential cosmic-ray acceleration sites in the galaxy.

Author

Alejandra Maria Granados Hernandez (Michigan State University)

Co-authors

Mehr Un Nisa (Michigan State University) Rishi Babu (Michigan State University)

Presentation materials