[vsnet-grb-info 19365] IceCube-170506A - IceCube update on a high-energy neutrino candidate event

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  21075
SUBJECT: IceCube-170506A - IceCube update on a high-energy neutrino candidate event
DATE:    17/05/06 21:37:15 GMT
FROM:    Erik Blaufuss at U. Maryland/IceCube  <blaufuss at icecube.umd.edu>

Erik Blaufuss (U. of Maryland) reports on behalf of the IceCube Collaboration (http://icecube.wisc.edu/).

On 06 May, 2017 IceCube detected a track-like, very-high-energy event with a possibility of being of astrophysical origin. The event was identified by the High Energy Starting Event (HESE) selection. 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 (https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/notices_amon/32674593_129474.amon), more sophisticated reconstruction algorithms have been applied offline, with the direction refined to:

Date: 2017-05-06

Time: 12:36:55.80 UT

RA: 221.8 deg (<+/- 3.0 ra uncertainty> deg 90% PSF containment) J2000

Dec: -26.0 deg (<+/- 2.0 dec uncertainty> deg 90% PSF containment) J2000

Additionally, after closer inspection of the event details, it shows signs of being consistent with atmospheric muon background events that are expected from this realtime event selection.

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

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Erik Blaufuss                      email: blaufuss at icecube.umd.edu
Department of Physics       http://icecube.umd.edu/~blaufuss
University of Maryland       Phone: 301-405-6077
College Park, MD 20742   Fax:   301-699-9195
Office: PSC 2208E            Home:  301-577-0134
"Any chance collision, and I light up in the dark."
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