Search for Diffuse Galactic Neutrinos with the Full ANTARES Telescope Dataset

TL;DR

This paper analyzes 15 years of ANTARES neutrino data to test models of Galactic diffuse neutrino emission, finding no significant detection but setting upper limits consistent with other experiments.

Contribution

It applies a maximum likelihood method to a comprehensive dataset to evaluate Galactic emission models, providing constraints on diffuse neutrino flux.

Findings

No significant detection of Galactic diffuse neutrinos.

Upper limits on neutrino flux are consistent with other experiments.

Models tested are not strongly constrained by the data.

Abstract

The diffuse emission of gamma-rays and neutrinos, produced by interactions of cosmic rays with interstellar matter in the Milky Way, provides valuable insights into cosmic ray propagation and Galactic processes. Emission models incorporating different assumptions about cosmic ray diffusion, source distribution, and target gas density are tested using data from neutrino telescopes. In this study, the final all-flavor neutrino dataset, collected over 15 years (2007--2022) by the ANTARES neutrino telescope, is analyzed. A maximum likelihood ratio method built to handle templates of Galactic emission models is employed to evaluate the compatibility of these models with the observed spatial and energy distributions of neutrino events. The results do not yield stringent constraints on the tested models and upper limits on the diffuse neutrino flux are derived, which are compatible with the results obtained by other experiments.