Search for Extended Sources of Neutrino Emission in the Galactic Plane with IceCube

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal 2023-10, Vol.956 (1), p.20
• Main Authors: Abbasi, R., Ahlers, M., Alameddine, J. M., Axani, S. N., Beise, J., Benning, C., Blaufuss, E., Blot, S., Boscolo Meneguolo, C., Botner, O., Braun, J., Busse, R. S., Campana, M. A., Chattopadhyay, S., Chirkin, D., Choi, S., Clark, B. A., Connolly, A., Conrad, J. M., Correa, P., Dave, P., DeLaunay, J. J., Desiati, P., Díaz-Vélez, J. C., Dujmovic, H., Ehrhardt, T., Eller, P., Ellinger, E., Farrag, K., Feigl, N., Fox, D., Gries, O., Halzen, F., Hanson, K., Heuermann, L., Heyer, N., Hickford, S., Hill, G. C., Hoshina, K., Hultqvist, K., Hymon, K., In, S., Kappes, A., Katz, U., Kiryluk, J., Klein, S. R., Kolanoski, H., Koskinen, D. J., Krishnamoorthi, J., Kruiswijk, K., Kun, E., Lagunas Gualda, C., Latseva, S., Lincetto, M., Liubarska, M., Mariscal, C. J. Lozano, Mahn, K. B. M., Mancina, S., Marka, S., McNally, F., Meagher, K., Mitchell, J., Mukherjee, T., Naab, R., O’Dell, V., Paudel, E. N., Procter-Murphy, R., Rack-Helleis, J., Rechav, Z., Renzi, G., Reusch, S., Rongen, M., Rott, C., Ryckbosch, D., Schieler, H., Schlickmann, L., Schlüter, F., Schmidt, T., Schröder, F. G., Schwefer, G., Shah, R., Sharma, A., Shimizu, N., Silva, M., Snihur, R., Søgaard, A., Spiczak, G. M., Stamatikos, M., Stuttard, T., Ter-Antonyan, S., Tollefson, K., Tönnis, C., Upadhyay, A. K., Veske, D., Walck, C., Wiebusch, C. H., Williams, D. R., Yu, S., Zhang, Z., Zhelnin, P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astrophysics; Cosmic ray showers; Cosmic rays; Emission analysis; Energy spectra; Galaxies; Gamma ray sources; Gamma rays; Neutrino astronomy; Neutrinos
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/acf713

The Galactic plane, harboring a diffuse neutrino flux, is a particularly interesting target in which to study potential cosmic-ray acceleration sites. Recent gamma-ray observations by HAWC and LHAASO have presented evidence for multiple Galactic sources that exhibit a spatially extended morphology and have energy spectra continuing beyond 100 TeV. A fraction of such emission could be produced by interactions of accelerated hadronic cosmic rays, resulting in an excess of high-energy neutrinos clustered near these regions. Using 10 years of IceCube data comprising track-like events that originate from charged-current muon neutrino interactions, we perform a dedicated search for extended neutrino sources in the Galaxy. We find no evidence for time-integrated neutrino emission from the potential extended sources studied in the Galactic plane. The most significant location, at 2.6 σ post-trials, is a 1.°7 sized region coincident with the unidentified TeV gamma-ray source 3HWC J1951+266. We provide strong constraints on hadronic emission from several regions in the galaxy.