Probing for Leptonic Signatures from GRB030329 with AMANDA-II

TL;DR

This paper analyzes AMANDA-II data to search for high-energy neutrinos from GRB030329, testing models based on fireball physics and electromagnetic observations, resulting in no detection but setting flux limits and discussing future prospects.

Contribution

It introduces a model-based, nearly background-free search for neutrinos from GRBs using AMANDA-II data, incorporating electromagnetic constraints and fireball phenomenology.

Findings

No neutrino signal detected from GRB030329.

Set an upper flux limit of ~0.150 GeV/cm^2/s for model 1.

Discussed implications for IceCube and future searches.

Abstract

The discovery of high-energy (TeV-PeV) neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) would shed light on their intrinsic microphysics by confirming hadronic acceleration in the relativistic jet; possibly revealing an acceleration mechanism for the highest energy cosmic rays. We describe an analysis featuring three models based upon confronting the fireball phenomenology with ground-based and satellite observations of GRB030329, which triggered the High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-II). Contrary to previous diffuse searches, the expected discrete muon neutrino energy spectra for models 1 and 2, based upon an isotropic and beamed emission geometry, respectively, are directly derived from the fireball description of the prompt gamma-ray photon energy spectrum, whose spectral fit parameters are characterized by the Band function, and the spectroscopically observed redshift, based upon the associated optical transient (OT) afterglow. For comparison, we also consider a model (3) based upon averaged burst parameters and isotropic emission. Strict spatial and temporal constraints (based upon electromagnetic observations), in conjunction with a single, robust selection criterion (optimized for discovery) have been leveraged to realize a nearly background-free search, with nominal signal loss, using archived data from the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA-II). Our preliminary results are consistent with a null signal detection, with a peak muon neutrino effective area of ~80 m^2 at ~2 PeV and a flux upper limit of ~0.150 GeV/cm^2/s for model 1. Predictions for IceCube, AMANDA's kilometer scale successor, are compared with those found in the literature. Implications for correlative searches are discussed