Cross Correlation of IceCube Neutrinos with Tracers of Large Scale Structure

TL;DR

This paper investigates the correlation between IceCube neutrinos and large-scale structure tracers using a two-point cross correlation, aiming to identify the neutrinos' origins by leveraging improved galaxy catalogs and precise neutrino event data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel two-point cross correlation method between IceCube neutrinos and large-scale structure tracers, enhancing the analysis of neutrino origins.

Findings

Developed a new cross correlation analysis technique.

Demonstrated the method's effectiveness with improved galaxy catalogs.

Provided insights into the spatial distribution of astrophysical neutrinos.

Abstract

The origin of most astrophysical neutrinos is unknown, but extragalactic neutrino sources may follow the spatial distribution of the large-scale structure of the universe. Galaxies also follow the same large scale distribution, so establishing a correlation between galaxies and IceCube neutrinos could help identify the origins of the diffuse neutrinos observed by IceCube. Following a preliminary study based on the WISE and 2MASS catalogs, we will investigate an updated galaxy catalog with improved redshift measurements and reduced stellar contamination. Our IceCube data sample consists of track-like muon neutrinos selected from the Northern sky. The excellent angular resolution of track-like events and low contamination with atmospheric muons is necessary for the sensitivity of the analysis. Unlike a point source stacking analysis, the calculation of the cross correlation does not scale with the number of entries in the catalog, making the work tractable for catalogs with millions of objects. We present the development and performance of a two-point cross correlation of IceCube neutrinos with a tracer of the large scale structure.