Search for High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Galactic X-ray Binaries with IceCube

TL;DR

This study conducts a comprehensive search for high-energy neutrino emission from Galactic X-ray binaries using 7.5 years of IceCube data, aiming to identify potential sources of cosmic rays and neutrinos in our galaxy.

Contribution

It is the first extensive analysis combining multiple search strategies for neutrinos from X-ray binaries with IceCube data, including periodic, time-dependent, and time-integrated searches.

Findings

No significant neutrino excess detected from the binaries.

Upper limits set on neutrino flux for various binary systems.

Demonstrated the potential of IceCube-Gen2 to detect neutrinos from these sources.

Abstract

We present the first comprehensive search for high-energy neutrino emission from high- and low-mass X-ray binaries conducted by IceCube. Galactic X-ray binaries are long-standing candidates for the source of Galactic hadronic cosmic rays and neutrinos. The compact object in these systems can be the site of cosmic-ray acceleration, and neutrinos can be produced by interactions of cosmic rays with radiation or gas, in the jet of a microquasar, in the stellar wind, or in the atmosphere of the companion star. We study X-ray binaries using 7.5 years of IceCube data with three separate analyses. In the first, we search for periodic neutrino emission from 55 binaries in the Northern Sky with known orbital periods. In the second, the X-ray light curves of 102 binaries across the entire sky are used as templates to search for time-dependent neutrino emission. Finally, we search for time-integrated emission of neutrinos for a list of 4 notable binaries identified as microquasars. In the absence of a significant excess, we place upper limits on the neutrino flux for each hypothesis and compare our results with theoretical predictions for several binaries. In addition, we evaluate the sensitivity of the next generation neutrino telescope at the South Pole, IceCube-Gen2, and demonstrate its power to identify potential neutrino emission from these binary sources in the Galaxy.