SEARCH FOR MUON NEUTRINOS FROM GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH THE IceCube NEUTRINO TELESCOPE

Abstract

We present the results of searches for high-energy muon neutrinos from 41 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in the northern sky with the IceCube detector in its 22 string configuration active in 2007/2008. The searches cover both the prompt and a possible precursor emission as well as a model-independent, wide time window of −1 hr to +3 hr around each GRB. In contrast to previous searches with a large GRB population, we do not utilize a standard Waxman-Bahcall GRB flux for the prompt emission but calculate individual neutrino spectra for all 41 GRBs from the burst parameters measured by satellites. For all of the three time windows, the best estimate for the number of signal events is zero. Therefore, we place 90% CL upper limits on the fluence from the prompt phase of 3.7 × 10 −3 erg cm −2 (72 TeV-6.5 PeV) and on the fluence from the precursor phase of 2.3 × 10 −3 erg cm −2 (2.2-55 TeV), where the quoted energy ranges contain 90% of the expected signal events in the detector. The 90% CL upper limit for the wide time window is 2.7 × 10 −3 erg cm −2 (3 TeV-2.8 PeV) assuming an E −2 flux.

Search for muon neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts with the ANTARES neutrino telescope using 2008 to 2011 data

“…The other parameters such as the jet Lorentz boost factor Γ, the fraction of jet energy in electrons e and in the magnetic field B , the ratio of energy in electrons and protons f e , the average fraction of proton energy transferred to a pion x p→π and the variability of the gamma-ray light curve t var are not present in the tables and hence were taken as default. The standard values are the same as given in Aguilar (2011), with some differences to the IC 22 (Abbasi et al 2010) default values: z = 2.0, Γ = 300, L iso = 10 51 erg s −1 . Baerwald et al (2012) give a very elaborate overview about the NeuCosmA spectra changing with the input parameters.…”

“…Guetta et al (2004) modified the formulae of Waxman and Bahcall to calculate individual neutrino fluxes for the bursts. Such individual burst predictions are used in recent searches with IceCube (Abbasi et al 2010(Abbasi et al , 2011(Abbasi et al , 2012, RICE (Besson et al 2007), and ANITA (Vieregg et al 2011). Note in particular that the most recent IceCube limit was a factor of 3.7 below predictions made using this model.…”

“…Very-large-volume neutrino telescopes such as ANTARES and IceCube are sensitive to neutrino fluxes above approximately 100 GeV; since they simultaneously observe at least half the sky, they are ideal instruments to search for any high-energy neutrino flux from GRBs. The data from ANTARES in its construction phase in 2007 with the first five detection lines deployed (Adrián-Martínez et al 2013) and from IceCube in its IC 22,IC 40, and IC 59 detector phases from 2007 to 2010 (Abbasi et al 2010(Abbasi et al , 2011(Abbasi et al , 2012 have previously been analysed in searches for this emission, with corresponding limits set in the TeV to PeV energy range. Due to its location at the South Pole, the IceCube detector has sensitivity for Northern Hemisphere sources, whereas the ANTARES detector, being situated at a latitude of 43 • , has sensitivity for Southern Hemisphere sources.…”

Neutrinos from decaying muons, pions, neutrons and kaons in gamma ray bursts

“…We compare our results with the recent IceCube limit [32] for GRB neutrinos with 40 and 59 strings. The details of their calculations and the values of the parameters they have used are given in [28,29,32]. IceCube collaboration observed 117 GRBs with 40-string, two additional GRBs included from test runs before the official start of 59-string and 181 GRBs with 59-string.…”

“…Moreover, the various decay processes may show distinct features in the neutrino flavour ratios. Due to the ongoing experimental activities to detect high energy neutrinos from GRBs [28,29,30,31,32] this field has remained exciting. IceCube collaboration has claimed to reach the sensitivity of detecting neutrino flux from GRBs at TeV energy.…”