IceCube search for neutrinos from novae

TL;DR

This paper reports the first search for neutrinos from novae using IceCube, aiming to detect correlated neutrino signals based on gamma-ray and optical observations, and discusses the potential for detecting other astrophysical transients.

Contribution

It introduces a novel neutrino search method for novae, leveraging gamma-ray and optical data, and demonstrates the applicability of IceCube DeepCore for transient astrophysical sources.

Findings

No neutrino signals detected from novae in the search.

Event selection method effective for GeV-TeV neutrino detection.

Framework applicable to other transients like gamma-ray bursts.

Abstract

Despite being one of the longest known classes of astrophysical transients, novae continue to present modern surprises. The Fermi-LAT discovered that many if not all novae are GeV gamma ray sources, even though theoretical models had not even considered them as a possible source class. More recently, MAGIC and H.E.S.S. detected TeV gamma rays from a nova. Moreover, there is strong evidence that the gamma rays are produced hadronically, and that the long-studied optical emission by novae is also shock-powered. If this is true, novae should emit a neutrino signal correlated with their gamma-ray and optical signals. We present the first search for neutrinos from novae. Because the neutrino energy spectrum is expected to match the gamma-ray spectrum, we use an IceCube DeepCore event selection focused on GeV-TeV neutrinos. We present results from two searches, one for neutrinos correlated with gamma-ray emission and one for neutrinos correlated with optical emission. The event selection presented here is promising for additional astrophysical transients including gamma-ray bursts and gravitational wave sources.