[vsnet-grb-info 18671] IceCube-161103: IceCube observation of a very-high-energy neutrino

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  20119
SUBJECT: IceCube-161103: IceCube observation of a very-high-energy neutrino
DATE:    16/11/03 14:40:56 GMT
FROM:    Ignacio Taboada at Georgia Inst of Tech  <itaboada at gatech.edu>

Ignacio Taboada (Georgia Institute of Technology) reports on behalf of the IceCube Collaboration (http://icecube.wisc.edu/).

On 2016/11/03 IceCube detected a track-like very-high-energy event with a high probability of being of astrophysical origin. The event was a High Energy Starting Event (HESE). The IceCube detector was in a normal operating state. HESE events have a neutrino vertex inside of the detector (to reduce background) and have a high light level (a proxy for energy).

After the initial automated alert (http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/notices_amon/38561326_128672.amon), more sophisticated reconstruction algorithms have been applied offline, with the direction refined to:

Date: 2016/11/03
Time: 09:07:31.12 UT
RA: 40.83 deg (+1.10 -0.70 deg 90% PSF containment) J2000
Dec: 12.56 deg (+1.10 -0.65 deg 90% PSF containment) J2000

We encourage follow-up by ground and space-based instruments to help identify a possible astrophysical source for the candidate neutrino.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic-kilometer neutrino detector operating at the geographic South Pole, Antarctica. The IceCube realtime alert point of contact can be reached at roc at icecube.wisc.edu