Search for GeV Neutrino Emission During Intense Gamma-Ray Solar Flares with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

TL;DR

This paper reports the first search for GeV neutrinos during solar flares using IceCube, introducing a new low-energy detection approach to constrain theoretical neutrino flux models.

Contribution

It presents a novel method to detect GeV neutrinos with IceCube and provides the first experimental limits on solar flare neutrino emission at these energies.

Findings

Set new upper limits on GeV neutrino flux from solar flares

Developed a new approach for low-energy neutrino detection with IceCube

Constrained theoretical models of neutrino production in solar flares

Abstract

Solar flares convert magnetic energy into thermal and non-thermal plasma energy, the latter implying particle acceleration of charged particles such as protons. Protons are injected out of the coronal acceleration region and can interact with dense plasma in the lower solar atmosphere, producing mesons that subsequently decay into gamma rays and neutrinos at O(MeV-GeV) energies. We present the results of the first search for GeV neutrinos emitted during solar flares carried out with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. While the experiment was originally designed to detect neutrinos with energies between 10 GeV and a few PeV, a new approach allowing for a O(GeV) energy threshold will be presented. The resulting limits allow us to constrain some of the theoretical estimates of the expected neutrino flux.