Enhanced Starting Track Real-time Stream for IceCube

TL;DR

The paper introduces ESTReS, a fast, real-time neutrino event filtering system for IceCube that enhances alert accuracy and speed, especially for southern sky events in the 5 TeV to 100 TeV range.

Contribution

ESTReS provides a computationally efficient, real-time filtering method that improves IceCube's neutrino alert system by focusing on high-purity astrophysical events in the southern sky.

Findings

ESTReS selects about 100 events per day for further analysis.

Approximately 10.3 high-purity astrophysical events are expected annually.

ESTReS enhances real-time alert capabilities for southern sky neutrino events.

Abstract

IceCube real-time alerts allow for rapid follow-up observations of likely astrophysical neutrino events, enabling searches for multi-messenger counterparts. The Enhanced Starting Track Real-time Stream (ESTReS) is a real-time extension of the Enhanced Starting Track Event Selection (ESTES), a high astrophysical purity muon-neutrino sample recently used by IceCube to measure the astrophysical diffuse flux. A set of computationally cheap cuts allows us to run a fast filter in seconds. This online filter selects about 100 events per day to be sent to Madison, WI via satellite where the full ESTES event selection is applied within minutes. Events that pass the final set of cuts (ESTReS + ESTES) will be sent out as real-time alerts to the broader astrophysical community. ESTReS's unique contribution to the current real-time alerts will be events in the southern sky in the 5 TeV - 100 TeV range. We expect about 10.3 events per year which average 50% astrophysical purity. In this talk I will report the status of the ESTReS alert stream in the context of the IceCube real-time program.