Search for diffuse neutrino flux from astrophysical sources with MACRO

M. Ambrosio, R. Antolini, G. Auriemma, D. Bakari, A. Baldini, G. C. Barbarino, B. C. Barish, G. Battistoni, Y. Becherini, R. Bellotti, C. Bemporad, P. Bernardini, H. Bilokon, C. Bloise, C. Bower, M. Brigida, S. Bussino, F. Cafagna, M. Calicchio, D. CampanaM. Carboni, R. Caruso, S. Cecchini, F. Cei, V. Chiarella, B. C. Choudhary, S. Coutu, M. Cozzi, G. de Cataldo, H. Dekhissi, C. de Marzo, I. de Mitri, J. Derkaoui, M. de Vincenzi, A. di Credico, O. Erriquez, C. Favuzzi, C. Forti, P. Fusco, G. Giacomelli, G. Giannini, N. Giglietto, M. Giorgini, M. Grassi, A. Grillo, F. Guarino, C. Gustavino, A. Habig, K. Hanson, R. Heinz, E. Iarocci, E. Katsavounidis, I. Katsavounidis, E. Kearns, H. Kim, S. Kyriazopoulou, E. Lamanna, C. Lane, D. S. Levin, P. Lipari, N. P. Longley, M. J. Longo, F. Loparco, F. Maaroufi, G. Mancarella, G. Mandrioli, A. Margiotta, A. Marini, D. Martello, A. Marzari-Chiesa, M. N. Mazziotta, D. G. Michael, P. Monacelli, T. Montaruli, M. Monteno, S. Mufson, J. Musser, D. Nicolò, R. Nolty, C. Orth, G. Osteria, O. Palamara, V. Patera, L. Patrizii, R. Pazzi, C. W. Peck, L. Perrone, S. Petrera, P. Pistilli, V. Popa, A. Rainò, J. Reynoldson, F. Ronga, A. Rrhioua, C. Satriano, E. Scapparone, K. Scholberg, A. Sciubba, P. Serra, M. Sioli, G. Sirri, M. Sitta, P. Spinelli, M. Spinetti, M. Spurio, R. Steinberg, J. L. Stone, L. R. Sulak, A. Surdo, G. Tarle, V. Togo, M. Vakili, C. W. Walter, R. Webb

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many galactic and extragalactic astrophysical sources are currently considered promising candidates as high-energy neutrino emitters. Astrophysical neutrinos can be detected as upward-going muons produced in charged-current interactions with the medium surrounding the detector. The expected neutrino fluxes from various models start to dominate on the atmospheric neutrino background at neutrino energies above some tens of TeV. We present the results of a search for an excess of high-energy upward-going muons among the sample of data collected by MACRO during ∼5.8 years of effective running time. No significant evidence for this signal was found. As a consequence, an upper limit on the flux of upward-going muons from high-energy neutrinos was set at the level of 1.7 × 10 -14 cm -2 s -1 sr -1 . The corresponding upper limit for the diffuse neutrino flux was evaluated assuming a neutrino power law spectrum. Our result was compared with theoretical predictions and upper limits from other experiments.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1-13
Number of pages13
JournalAstroparticle Physics
Volume19
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2003

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the director and of the staff of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and the invaluable assistance of the technical staff of the Institutions participating in the experiment. We thank the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the US Department of Energy and the US National Science Foundation for their generous support of the MACRO experiment. We thank INFN, ICTP (Trieste), WorldLab and NATO for providing fellowships and grants (FAI) for non-Italian citizens.

Keywords

  • AGNs
  • GRBs
  • Neutrino

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