Speaker
Description
Neutrino astronomy with the IceCube detector probes the high-energy Universe through astrophysical neutrinos in the GeV–PeV energy range in a fundamentally different way than photon-based observations. Neutrino telescopes do not record images of the sky; instead, source associations are inferred statistically from reconstructed neutrino events. To date, only three neutrino sources have reached discovery-level statistical significance with IceCube; two of them are active galactic nuclei. In this talk, I will provide a conceptual overview of how neutrino detections are defined, including event reconstruction and the interpretation of statistical significance. Given the present sensitivity of current detectors, progress in identifying extragalactic neutrino sources depends not only on accumulating more data over time or building larger future instruments, but also on incorporating physically motivated multimessenger priors into statistical analyses. I will argue that such multimessenger approaches offer a powerful pathway toward strengthening the association between high-energy cosmic neutrinos and their astrophysical origins.