[vsnet-grb-info 7316] GRB 080319B: IceCube upper limit on high-energy neutrino flux

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  8883
SUBJECT: GRB 080319B: IceCube upper limit on high-energy neutrino flux
DATE:    09/02/05 17:41:59 GMT
FROM:    Alexander Kappes at UW-Madison/IceCube  <alexander.kappes at icecube.wisc.edu>

Alexander Kappes for the IceCube collaboration (http://www.icecube.wisc.edu 
) reports:

IceCube is a 1 km^3 neutrino telescope located at the geographic South  
Pole sensitive to neutrinos above ~100 GeV. We used the data from  
IceCube in its 9-string configuration to search for high-energy muon  
neutrinos from the position of GRB 080319B (Racusin et al., GCN 7427)  
using an unbinned likelihood method. The search was performed in a  
narrow time window of 66 s (T_0 - 3.8s to T_0 + 62.2s) corresponding  
to the observed prompt gamma-ray emission, and in a wider window of  
about 5 minutes (T_0 - 173s to T_0 + 130 s).

We do not find any indications for a deviation from the background- 
only hypothesis in either of the two time windows. Therefore, we use  
the null result from the prompt window to place an upper limit (90%  
C.L.) on the prompt muon neutrino flux from GRB 080319B of 9.0e-3 erg  
cm^-2 in the energy range between 145 TeV and 2.1 PeV.

A corresponding paper has been submitted to ApJ. The preprint version  
can be found at arXiv:0902.0131.