[vsnet-grb-info 19978] Retraction of high energy neutrino candidate IceCube-171028

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  22065
SUBJECT: Retraction of high energy neutrino candidate IceCube-171028
DATE:    17/10/28 13:00:48 GMT
FROM:    Ignacio Taboada at Georgia Inst of Tech  <itaboada at gatech.edu>

The IceCube Collaboration (http://icecube.wisc.edu/) reports:

On October 28, 2017, IceCube reported a track-like, very-high-energy-event. The event was identified by the High Energy Starting Event (HESE) selection. Initial localization reported was RA, Dec: 275.0760, +34.5011 deg (J2000) with an online estimate of the 90% PSF uncertainty of 8.9 deg.

Visual inspection reveals that the event is indeed a track, but that the outgoing muon is heavily obscured by the, ~100 m thick, dust ice layer within IceCube. Offline reconstruction yields the localization:

RA: 67.5 deg (+23,-28; 50% PSF containment) J2000
Dec: -69.8 deg (+10,-7; 50% PSF containment) J2000

Unlike in previous GCN circulars, the 90% PSF containment is not provided. The 90% uncertainty region is large enough that it hasn't been calcuated in time for this retraction. 

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