Follow-up of astrophysical transients in real time with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

TL;DR

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory conducts rapid, real-time follow-up analyses of astrophysical transients to support multi-messenger astronomy, informing observing strategies and constraining neutrino emission from cosmic accelerators.

Contribution

This paper details the development and implementation of a low-latency follow-up pipeline for astrophysical transients at IceCube, and summarizes 58 analyses conducted since 2016.

Findings

No significant neutrino signals detected in 58 analyses.

The pipeline has influenced electromagnetic observing strategies.

Constraints placed on neutrino emission from potential cosmic accelerators.

Abstract

In multi-messenger astronomy, rapid investigation of interesting transients is imperative. As an observatory with a 4$\pi$ steradian field of view and $\sim$99\% uptime, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a unique facility to follow up transients, and to provide valuable insight for other observatories and inform their observing decisions. Since 2016, IceCube has been using low-latency data to rapidly respond to interesting astrophysical events reported by the multi-messenger observational community. Here, we describe the pipeline used to perform these follow up analyses and provide a summary of the 58 analyses performed as of July 2020. We find no significant signal in the first 58 analyses performed. The pipeline has helped inform various electromagnetic observing strategies, and has constrained neutrino emission from potential hadronic cosmic accelerators.