A Coincidence Search for Cosmic Neutrino and Gamma-Ray Emitting Sources Using IceCube and Fermi LAT Public Data

TL;DR

This study searches for coincident neutrino and gamma-ray sources using IceCube and Fermi LAT data, aiming to detect transient events or correlations, but finds no significant individual events and suggests a possible correlation in residuals.

Contribution

It introduces a novel archival coincidence analysis method combining IceCube and Fermi LAT data to identify potential neutrino-gamma-ray sources and reports on the current null results and potential correlations.

Findings

No significant high-significance neutrino + gamma-ray events detected.

Sensitivity demonstrated for detecting events with sufficient gamma-ray multiplicity.

Potential correlation between neutrino positions and bright gamma-ray regions suggested.

Abstract

We present results of an archival coincidence analysis between Fermi LAT gamma-ray data and public neutrino data from the IceCube neutrino observatory's 40-string (IC40) and 59-string (IC59) observing runs. Our analysis has the potential to detect either a statistical excess of neutrino + gamma-ray ($\nu$+$\gamma$) emitting transients or, alternatively, individual high gamma-multiplicity events, as might be produced by a neutrino observed by IceCube coinciding with a LAT-detected gamma-ray burst. Dividing the neutrino data into three datasets by hemisphere (IC40, IC59-North, and IC59-South), we construct uncorrelated null distributions by Monte Carlo scrambling of the neutrino datasets. We carry out signal-injection studies against these null distributions, demonstrating sensitivity to individual $\nu$+$\gamma$ events of sufficient gamma-ray multiplicity, and to $\nu$+$\gamma$ transient populations responsible for $>$14% (IC40), $>$9% (IC59-North), or $>$8% (IC59-South) of the gamma-coincident neutrinos observed in these datasets, respectively. Analyzing the unscrambled neutrino data, we identify no individual high-significance neutrino + high gamma-multiplicity events, and no significant deviations from the test statistic null distributions. However, we observe a similar and unexpected pattern in the IC59-North and IC59-South residual distributions that we conclude reflects a possible correlation ($p=7.0\%$) between IC59 neutrino positions and persistently bright portions of the Fermi gamma-ray sky. This possible correlation should be readily testable using eight years of further data already collected by IceCube. We are currently working with Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON) partner facilities to generate low-latency $\nu$+$\gamma$ alerts from Fermi LAT gamma-ray, IceCube and ANTARES neutrino data and distribute these in real time to AMON follow-up partners.