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

• Published in: The Astrophysical Journal
• Main Authors: Abbasi, R., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., Ahrens, M., Alispach, C., Alves, A. A., Amin, N. M., An, R., Andeen, K., Anderson, T., Anton, G., Argüelles, C., Ashida, Y., Axani, S., Bai, X., V., A. Balagopal, Barbano, A., Barwick, S. W., Bastian, B., Basu, V., Baur, S., Bay, R., Beatty, J. J., Becker, K.-H., Tjus, J. Becker, Bellenghi, C., BenZvi, S., Berley, D., Bernardini, E., Besson, D. Z., Binder, G., Bindig, D., Blaufuss, E., Blot, S., Boddenberg, M., Bontempo, F., Borowka, J., Böser, S., Botner, O., Böttcher, J., Bourbeau, E., Bradascio, F., Braun, J., Bron, S., Brostean-Kaiser, J., Browne, S., Burgman, A., Burley, R. T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: ddc:530; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-fau/frontdoor/index/index/docId/18508; https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:29-opus4-185082; https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac3cb6; https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-fau/files/18508/apj_926_1_59.pdf

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.