ICECUBEPSC - IceCube All-Sky Point-Source Neutrino Events Catalog (2008-2018)

Overview

IceCube has performed several searches for point-like sources of neutrinos. The events contained in this release make up the sample used in IceCube's 10-year time-integrated neutrino point source search [1]. Events in the sample are track-like neutrino candidates detected by IceCube between April 2008 and July 2018.

The data contained in this release of IceCube's point source sample shows 3.3 sigma evidence of a cumulative excess of events from a catalog of 110 potential sources, primarily driven by four sources (NGC 1068, TXS 0506+056, PKS 1424+240, and GB6 J1542+6129). NGC 1068 gives the largest excess and appears in spatial coincidence with the hottest spot in the full Northern sky search [1].

IceCube's 10-year neutrino point source event sample includes updated processing for events between April 2012 and May 2015, leading to differences in significances of some sources, including TXS 0506+056. For more information, please refer to [2].

This release contains data beginning in 2008 (IC40) until the spring of 2018 (IC86-VII). In order to standardize the release format of IceCube's point source candidate events, this release duplicates and supplants previously released data from 2012 and earlier. Events from this release cannot be combined with other IceCube public data releases.

Please note that this dataset is dominated by background events from atmospheric muons and neutrinos detected by IceCube, with a subdominant astrophysical event contribution. Any spatial or temporal correlations should therefore be carefully evaluated on a statistical basis. See [1] and references therein for details regarding the statistical techniques used by IceCube.

[1] Time-integrated Neutrino Source Searches with 10 years of IceCube Data, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 051103 (2020)

[2] IceCube Data for Neutrino Point-Source Searches: Years 2008-2018, https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.09836

For additional questions about this table, please contact the authors: data [AT] icecube.wisc.edu.

Catalog Bibcode

2021arXiv210109836I

References

IceCube Collaboration (2021): All-sky point-source IceCube data:
    years 2008-2018. Dataset. DOI: http://doi.org/DOI:10.21234/sxvs-mt83

Provenance

This database table was ingested by the HEASARC in July 2021 and is based upon files provided by the IceCube Collaboration and available from their website.

Parameters

Event_Number
The sequential number assigned by the HEASARC to each event in the catalog.

Time
The time of the event interaction. This parameter was given in MJD with a precision of 1.0e-8 days in the original tables. This corresponds to roughly millisecond precision.

RA
The right ascension of the particle's reconstructed origin. This parameter was given in J2000 decimal degrees to a precision of 10^-3 degrees in the data files as published by the project, but, based on the error_radius values, the values are not that precise. Please refer to the associated error_radius for the actual precision for each position.

Dec
The declination of the particle's reconstructed origin. This parameter was given in J2000 decimal degrees to a precision of 10^-3 degrees in the data files as published by the project, but, based on the error_radius values, the values are not that precise. Please refer to the associated error_radius for the actual precision for each position.

LII
The Galactic longitude of the particle's reconstructed origin. This parameter was calculated by the HEASARC from the provided J2000 position and should have comparable precision.

BII
The Galactic latitude of the particle's reconstructed origin. This parameter was calculated by the HEASARC from the provided J2000 position and should have comparable precision.

Error_Radius
The estimated angular uncertainty on the reconstructed direction given in degrees. The angular uncertainty is assumed to be symmetric in azimuth and altitude and is used to calculate the signal spatial probabilities for each event following the procedure given in Braun et al. (2008). The errors are calibrated using simulated events so that they provide correct coverage for an E^-2 power law flux. This sample assumes a lower limit on the estimated angular uncertainty of 0.2 degrees.

Event_Energy
The reconstructed energy of the observed muon track given in GeV. The reconstruction follows the prescription for unfolding given in Section 8 of Aartsen et al. 2014JInst...9P3009A. These are not neutrino energies, but can be converted to a posterior distribution of likely neutrino energies using released effective areas and an assumed flux model. For a description of the relationship between reconstructed muon energy and neutrino energy, refer to the "Muon energy and neutrino energy" section in the supplemental material of Aartsen et al. 2018Sci...361..147I.

Azimuth
The local azimuth coordinate, in degrees, of the particle's reconstructed origin. The local coordinates may be necessary when searching for transient phenomena on timescales shorter than 1 day due to non-uniformity in the detector's response as a function of azimuth. In these cases, the authors recommend scrambling events in time, then using the local coordinates and time to calculate new RA and Dec values.

Zenith
The local zenith coordinate, in degrees, of the particle's reconstructed origin. The local coordinates may be necessary when searching for transient phenomena on timescales shorter than 1 day due to non-uniformity in the detector's response as a function of azimuth. In these cases, the authors recommend scrambling events in time, then using the local coordinates and time to calculate new RA and Dec values.

Config_Code
The IceCube detector configuration code added by the HEASARC to track the corresponding release and configuration for the event data. IceCube consists of 86 strings and the detector construction was completed in Dec 2010. Since then every year of full IC86 operation has been labeled with successive Roman numerals, with previous years being labeled according to the number of strings deployed in the ice up to that point (IC40, IC59, IC79, etc). The different IC86 labels refer to slight changes in the detector configuration and event filtering.

Contact Person

Questions regarding the ICECUBEPSC database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Monday, 16-Sep-2024 17:29:08 EDT