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RICE limits on the diffuse ultrahigh energy neutrino flux

I. Kravchenko

C. Cooley

S. Hussain, D. Seckel, and P. Wahrlich

J. Adams, S. Churchwell, P. Harris, and S. Seunarine

A. Bean, D. Besson, S. Graham, S. Holt, D. Marfatia, D. McKay, J. Meyers, J. Ralston*, R. Schiel et al.

J. Ledford and K. Ratzlaff

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Nuclear Science, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

  • Whitman College Department of Physics, Walla Walla, Washington 99362, USA

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark Delaware 19716, USA

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Private Bag 4800, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

H. Swift

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-2151, USA

  • University of Kansas Instrumentation Design Laboratory, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-2151, USA

  • *Contact for additional information.
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Phys. Rev. D 73, 082002 – Published 24 April, 2006

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.73.082002

Abstract

We present new limits on ultrahigh energy neutrino fluxes above 1017  eV based on data collected by the Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment (RICE) at the South Pole from 1999–2005. We discuss estimation of backgrounds, calibration and data analysis algorithms (both online and offline), procedures used for the dedicated neutrino search, and refinements in our Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, including recent in situ measurements of the complex ice dielectric constant. An enlarged data set and a more detailed study of hadronic showers results in a sensitivity improvement of more than 1 order of magnitude compared to our previously published results. Examination of the full RICE data set yields zero acceptable neutrino candidates, resulting in 95% confidence-level model-dependent limits on the flux Eν2dϕ/dEν<10−6  GeV/(cm2 s sr) in the energy range 1017<Eν<1020  eV. The new RICE results rule out the most intense flux model projections at 95% confidence level.

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Phys. Rev. D 73, 082002– Published 24 April, 2006
  • Received 17 February 2006

© 2006 American Physical Society

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