Detection of astrophysical tau neutrino candidates in IceCube
Creators: name: Abbasi, R.
name: Ackermann, M.
name: Adams, J.
name: Aguilar, J. A.
name: Ahlers, M.
name: Ahrens, M.
name: Alispach, C.
name: Alves, A. A.
name: Amin, N. M.
name: Andeen, K.
name: Anderson, T.
name: Ansseau, I.
name: Anton, G.
name: Argüelles, C.
name: Axani, S.
name: Bai, X.
name: V., A. Balagopal
name: Barbano, A.
name: Barwick, S. W.
name: Bastian, B.
name: Basu, V.
name: Baum, V.
name: Baur, S.
name: Bay, R.
name: Beatty, J. J.
name: Becker, K. -H.
name: Tjus, J. Becker
name: Bellenghi, C.
name: BenZvi, S.
name: Berley, D.
name: Bernardini, E.
name: Besson, D. Z.
name: Binder, G.
name: Bindig, D.
name: Blaufuss, E.
name: Blot, S.
name: Böser, S.
name: Botner, O.
name: Böttcher, J.
name: Bourbeau, E.
name: Bourbeau, J.
name: Bradascio, F.
name: Braun, J.
name: Bron, S.
name: Brostean-Kaiser, J.
name: Burgman, A.
name: Busse, R. S.
name: Campana, M. A.
name: Chen, C.
name: Chirkin, D.
name: Choi, S.
name: Clark, B. A.
name: Clark, K.
name: Classen, L.
name: Coleman, A.
name: Collin, G. H.
name: Conrad, J. M.
name: Coppin, P.
name: Correa, P.
name: Cowen, D. F.
name: Cross, R.
name: Dave, P.
name: De Clercq, C.
name: DeLaunay, J. J.
name: Dembinski, H.
name: Deoskar, K.
name: De Ridder, S.
name: Desai, A.
name: Desiati, P.
name: de Vries, K. D.
name: de Wasseige, G.
name: de With, M.
name: DeYoung, T.
name: Dharani, S.
name: Diaz, A.
name: Díaz-Vélez, J. C.
name: Dujmovic, H.
name: Dunkman, M.
name: DuVernois, M. A.
name: Dvorak, E.
name: Ehrhardt, T.
name: Eller, P.
name: Engel, R.
name: Evans, J.
name: Evenson, P. A.
name: Fahey, S.
name: Fazely, A. R.
name: Fiedlschuster, S.
name: Fienberg, A. T.
name: Filimonov, K.
name: Finley, C.
name: Fischer, L.
name: Fox, D.
name: Franckowiak, A.
name: Friedman, E.
name: Fritz, A.
name: Fürst, P.
name: Gaisser, T. K.
name: Gallagher, J.
name: Ganster, E.
name: Garrappa, S.
name: Gerhardt, L.
name: Ghadimi, A.
name: Glauch, T.
name: Glüsenkamp, T.
name: Goldschmidt, A.
name: Gonzalez, J. G.
name: Goswami, S.
name: Grant, D.
name: Grégoire, T.
name: Griffith, Z.
name: Griswold, S.
name: Gündüz, M.
name: Haack, C.
name: Hallgren, A.
name: Halliday, R.
name: Halve, L.
name: Halzen, F.
name: Minh, M. Ha
name: Hanson, K.
name: Hardin, J.
name: Haungs, A.
name: Hauser, S.
name: Hebecker, D.
name: Helbing, K.
name: Henningsen, F.
name: Hickford, S.
name: Hignight, J.
name: Hill, C.
name: Hill, G. C.
name: Hoffman, K. D.
name: Hoffmann, R.
name: Hoinka, T.
name: Hokanson-Fasig, B.
name: Hoshina, K.
name: Huang, F.
name: Huber, M.
name: Huber, T.
name: Hultqvist, K.
name: Hünnefeld, M.
name: Hussain, R.
name: In, S.
name: Iovine, N.
name: Ishihara, A.
name: Jansson, M.
name: Japaridze, G. S.
name: Jeong, M.
name: Jones, B. J. P.
name: Joppe, R.
name: Kang, D.
name: Kang, W.
name: Kang, X.
name: Kappes, A.
name: Kappesser, D.
name: Karg, T.
name: Karl, M.
name: Karle, A.
name: Katz, U.
name: Kauer, M.
name: Kellermann, M.
name: Kelley, J. L.
name: Kheirandish, A.
name: Kim, J.
name: Kin, K.
name: Kintscher, T.
name: Kiryluk, J.
name: Klein, S. R.
name: Koirala, R.
name: Kolanoski, H.
name: Köpke, L.
name: Kopper, C.
name: Kopper, S.
name: Koskinen, D. J.
name: Koundal, P.
name: Kovacevich, M.
name: Kowalski, M.
name: Krings, K.
name: Krückl, G.
name: Kulacz, N.
name: Kurahashi, N.
name: Kyriacou, A.
name: Gualda, C. Lagunas
name: Lanfranchi, J. L.
name: Larson, M. J.
name: Lauber, F.
name: Lazar, J. P.
name: Leonard, K.
name: Leszczyńska, A.
name: Li, Y.
name: Liu, Q. R.
name: Lohfink, E.
name: Mariscal, C. J. Lozano
name: Lu, L.
name: Lucarelli, F.
name: Ludwig, A.
name: Luszczak, W.
name: Lyu, Y.
name: Ma, W. Y.
name: Madsen, J.
name: Mahn, K. B. M.
name: Makino, Y.
name: Mallik, P.
name: Mancina, S.
name: Mariş, I. C.
name: Maruyama, R.
name: Mase, K.
name: McNally, F.
name: Meagher, K.
name: Medina, A.
name: Meier, M.
name: Meighen-Berger, S.
name: Merz, J.
name: Micallef, J.
name: Mockler, D.
name: Momenté, G.
name: Montaruli, T.
name: Moore, R. W.
name: Morse, R.
name: Moulai, M.
name: Naab, R.
name: Nagai, R.
name: Naumann, U.
name: Necker, J.
name: Neer, G.
name: Nguyen, L. V.
name: Niederhausen, H.
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name: Nowicki, S. C.
name: Nygren, D. R.
name: Pollmann, A. Obertacke
name: Oehler, M.
name: Olivas, A.
name: O'Sullivan, E.
name: Pandya, H.
name: Pankova, D. V.
name: Park, N.
name: Parker, G. K.
name: Paudel, E. N.
name: Peiffer, P.
name: Heros, C. Pérez de los
name: Philippen, S.
name: Pieloth, D.
name: Pieper, S.
name: Pizzuto, A.
name: Plum, M.
name: Popovych, Y.
name: Porcelli, A.
name: Rodriguez, M. Prado
name: Price, P. B.
name: Przybylski, G. T.
name: Raab, C.
name: Raissi, A.
name: Rameez, M.
name: Rawlins, K.
name: Rea, I. C.
name: Rehman, A.
name: Reimann, R.
name: Renschler, M.
name: Renzi, G.
name: Resconi, E.
name: Reusch, S.
name: Rhode, W.
name: Richman, M.
name: Riedel, B.
name: Robertson, S.
name: Roellinghoff, G.
name: Rongen, M.
name: Rott, C.
name: Ruhe, T.
name: Ryckbosch, D.
name: Cantu, D. Rysewyk
name: Safa, I.
name: Herrera, S. E. Sanchez
name: Sandrock, A.
name: Sandroos, J.
name: Santander, M.
name: Sarkar, S.
name: Sarkar, S.
name: Satalecka, K.
name: Scharf, M.
name: Schaufel, M.
name: Schieler, H.
name: Schlunder, P.
name: Schmidt, T.
name: Schneider, A.
name: Schneider, J.
name: Schröder, F. G.
name: Schumacher, L.
name: Sclafani, S.
name: Seckel, D.
name: Seunarine, S.
name: Shefali, S.
name: Silva, M.
name: Smithers, B.
name: Snihur, R.
name: Soedingrekso, J.
name: Soldin, D.
name: Spiczak, G. M.
name: Spiering, C.
name: Stachurska, J.
name: Stamatikos, M.
name: Stanev, T.
name: Stein, R.
name: Stettner, J.
name: Steuer, A.
name: Stezelberger, T.
name: Stokstad, R. G.
name: Strotjohann, N. L.
name: Stuttard, T.
name: Sullivan, G. W.
name: Taboada, I.
name: Tenholt, F.
name: Ter-Antonyan, S.
name: Tilav, S.
name: Tischbein, F.
name: Tollefson, K.
name: Tomankova, L.
name: Tönnis, C.
name: Toscano, S.
name: Tosi, D.
name: Trettin, A.
name: Tselengidou, M.
name: Tung, C. F.
name: Turcati, A.
name: Turcotte, R.
name: Turley, C. F.
name: Twagirayezu, J. P.
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name: Unger, E.
name: Elorrieta, M. A. Unland
name: Usner, M.
name: Vandenbroucke, J.
name: van Eijk, D.
name: van Eijndhoven, N.
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name: Weindl, A.
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name: Weldert, J.
name: Wendt, C.
name: Werthebach, J.
name: Weyrauch, M.
name: Whelan, B. J.
name: Whitehorn, N.
name: Wiebe, K.
name: Wiebusch, C. H.
name: Williams, D. R.
name: Wolf, M.
name: Wood, T. R.
name: Woschnagg, K.
name: Wrede, G.
name: Wulff, J.
name: Xu, X. W.
name: Xu, Y.
name: Yanez, J. P.
name: Yoshida, S.
name: Yuan, T.
name: Zhang, Z.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: High-energy tau neutrinos are rarely produced in atmospheric cosmic-ray showers or at cosmic particle accelerators, but are expected to emerge during neutrino propagation over cosmic distances due to flavor mixing. When high energy tau neutrinos interact inside the IceCube detector, two spatially separated energy depositions may be resolved, the first from the charged current interaction and the second from the tau lepton decay. We report a novel analysis of 7.5 years of IceCube data that identifies two candidate tau neutrinos among the 60 ``High-Energy Starting Events'' (HESE) collected during that period. The HESE sample offers high purity, all-sky sensitivity, and distinct observational signatures for each neutrino flavor, enabling a new measurement of the flavor composition. The measured astrophysical neutrino flavor composition is consistent with expectations, and an astrophysical tau neutrino flux is indicated at 2.8$σ$ significance.
description: This article is supported by a long-form paper that discusses the high-energy starting event selection titled: "The IceCube high-energy starting event sample: Description and flux characterization with 7.5 years of data."