IceCube Real-time Searches for High-energy Neutrinos Coincident with LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Gravitational-Wave Alerts in O4a
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Gravitational-wave events from mergers of compact objects are a predicted source of high-energy neutrinos. Using data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, we search for neutrinos coincident with 85 significant and 945 low-significance gravitational-wave candidate events from compact binary coalescences published in real-time by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration during the first part of its fourth observing run (O4a) and its preceding engineering run, within a time window of $\pm500$ seconds from the merger time. We report improvements to the online pipelines, including automatic sending of notices, which improved the median IceCube real-time response compared to the previous observing run by a factor of 2.7 times faster. In addition, we search for long-duration neutrino emission from three candidate events: two neutron star-black hole mergers and one low-significance gravitational-wave event with a possible subthreshold gamma-ray counterpart. We use two methods, both of which have been previously used to search for neutrinos from gravitational-wave transients: an unbinned maximum likelihood analysis on significant alerts and a Bayesian analysis accounting for astrophysical priors on all alerts. We find no statistically significant emission from any individual gravitational-wave event analyzed. In the unbinned maximum likelihood search, the lowest $p$-value event is S231029y, with $p=0.0079$ ($0.752$ post-trials). In the Bayesian search, the lowest $p$-value for significant events is S230904n, with $p=0.0076$ ($0.9996$ post-trials), and for low-significance events is S231025a, with $p=0.0011$ ($0.678$ post-trials), with an overall population $p$-value of $0.55$. We accordingly set upper limits for each event on the time-integrated flux and energy emitted in neutrinos, assuming isotropic emission.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: The IceCube Collaboration, Abbasi, R., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., Alameddine, J. M., Ali, S., Amin, N. M., Andeen, K., Argüelles, C., Ashida, Y., Athanasiadou, S., Axani, S. N., Babu, R., Bai, X., V., A. Balagopal, Barwick, S. W., Basu, V., Bay, R., Beatty, J. J., Tjus, J. Becker, Behrens, P., Beise, J., Bellenghi, C., Benkel, S., BenZvi, S., Berley, D., Bernardini, E., Besson, D. Z., Blaufuss, E., Bloom, L., Blot, S., Bontempo, F., Motzkin, J. Y. Book, Meneguolo, C. Boscolo, Böser, S., Botner, O., Böttcher, J., Braun, J., Brinson, B., Brisson-Tsavoussis, Z., Brusa, L., Burley, R. T., Butterfield, D., Carloni, K., Carpio, J., Chau, N., Chen, Y. C., Chen, Z., Chirkin, D., Choi, S., Chubarov, A., Clark, B. A., Collin, G. H., Borja, D. A. Coloma, Connolly, A., Conrad, J. M., Cowen, D. F., De Clercq, C., DeLaunay, J. J., Delgado, D., Delmeulle, T., Deng, S., Desiati, P., de Vries, K. D., de Wasseige, G., DeYoung, T., Díaz-Vélez, J. C., DiKerby, S., Ding, T., Dittmer, M., Domi, A., Draper, L., Dueser, L., Durnford, D., Dutta, K., DuVernois, M. A., Ehrhardt, T., Eidenschink, L., Eimer, A., Eldridge, C., Eller, P., Ellinger, E., Elsässer, D., Engel, R., Erpenbeck, H., Esmail, W., Eulig, S., Evans, J., Evenson, P. A., Fan, K. L., Fang, K., Farrag, K., Fazely, A. R., Fedynitch, A., Feigl, N., Finley, C., Fox, D., Franckowiak, A., Fukami, S., Fürst, P., Gallagher, J., Ganster, E., Garcia, A., Garcia, M., Genton, E., Gerhardt, L., Ghadimi, A., Glaser, C., Glüsenkamp, T., Gonzalez, J. G., Goswami, S., Granados, A., Grant, D., Gray, S. J., Griffin, S., Groth, K. M., Guevel, D., Günther, C., Gutjahr, P., Ha, C., Hallgren, A., Halve, L., Halzen, F., Hamacher, L., Handt, M., Hanson, K., Hardin, J., Harnisch, A. A., Hatch, P., Haungs, A., Häußler, J., Helbing, K., Hellrung, J., Henke, B., Hennig, L., Henningsen, F., Heuermann, L., Hewett, R., Heyer, N., Hickford, S., Hidvegi, A., Hill, C., Hill, G. C., Hmaid, R., Hoffman, K. D., Hollnagel, A., Hooper, D., Hori, S., Hoshina, K., Hostert, M., Hou, W., Hrywniak, M., Huber, T., Hultqvist, K., Hymon, K., Ishihara, A., Iwakiri, W., Jacquart, M., Jain, S., Janik, O., Jansson, M., Jin, M., Kamp, N., Kang, D., Kang, W., Kappes, A., Kardum, L., Karg, T., Karle, A., Katil, A., Kauer, M., Kelley, J. L., Khanal, M., Zathul, A. Khatee, Kheirandish, A., Kim, T., Kimku, H., Kirchner, F., Kiryluk, J., Klein, C., Klein, S. R., Kobayashi, Y., Koch, S., Kochocki, A., Koirala, R., Kolanoski, H., Kontrimas, T., Köpke, L., Kopper, C., Koskinen, D. J., Koundal, P., Kowalski, M., Kozynets, T., Kravka, A., Krieger, N., Krishnan, T., Kruiswijk, K., Krupczak, E., Kumar, A., Kun, E., Kurahashi, N., Gualda, C. Lagunas, Arnaud, L. Lallement, Larson, M. J., Lauber, F., Lazar, J. P., DeHolton, K. Leonard, Leszczyńska, A., Li, C., Liao, J., Lin, C., Liu, Q. R., Liu, Y. T., Liubarska, M., Love, C., Lu, L., Lucarelli, F., Luszczak, W., Lyu, Y., Macdonald, M., Magnus, E., Makino, Y., Manao, E., Mancina, S., Mand, A., Mariş, I. C., Marka, S., Marka, Z., Marten, L., Martinez-Soler, I., Maruyama, R., Mauro, J., Mayhew, F., McNally, F., Meagher, K., Medina, A., Meier, M., Merckx, Y., Merten, L., Mitchell, J., Molchany, L., Mondal, S., Montaruli, T., Moore, R. W., Morii, Y., Mosbrugger, A., Mousadi, D., Moyaux, E., Mukherjee, T., Nakos, M., Naumann, U., Neste, L., Neumann, M., Niederhausen, H., Nisa, M. U., Noda, K., Noell, A., Novikov, A., Obertacke, A., O'Dell, V., Olivas, A., Orsoe, R., Osborn, J., O'Sullivan, E., Owens, B., Palusova, V., Pandya, H., Parenti, A., Park, N., Parrish, V., Paudel, E. N., Paul, L., Heros, C. Pérez de los, Pernice, T., Petersen, T. C., Peterson, J., Pick, S., Plum, M., Pontén, A., Poojyam, V., Pries, B., Procter-Murphy, R., Przybylski, G. T., Pyras, L., Raab, C., Rack-Helleis, J., Rad, N., Ravn, M., Rawlins, K., Rechav, Z., Rehman, A., Reistroffer, I., Resconi, E., Rho, C. D., Rhode, W., Ricca, L., Riedel, B., Rifaie, A., Roberts, E. J., Rodan, S., Romfoe, M. J., Rongen, M., Rosted, A., Rott, C., Ruhe, T., Ruohan, L., Ryckbosch, D., Saffer, J., Salazar-Gallegos, D., Sampathkumar, P., Sandrock, A., Sanger-Johnson, G., Santander, M., Sarkar, S., Scarnera, M., Schaufel, M., Schieler, H., Schindler, S., Schlickmann, L., Schlüter, B., Schlüter, F., Schmeisser, N., Schmidt, T., Scholz, A., Schröder, F. G., Schwirn, S., Sclafani, S., Seckel, D., Seen, L., Seikh, M., Seunarine, S., Myhr, P. A. Sevle, Shah, R., Shah, S., Shefali, S., Shimizu, N., Shin, M., Skrzypek, B., Snihur, R., Soedingrekso, J., Soldin, D., Soldin, P., Sommani, G., Song, D., Spannfellner, C., Spiczak, G. M., Spiering, C., Stachurska, J., Stamatikos, M., Stanev, T., Stezelberger, T., Stürwald, T., Stuttard, T., Sullivan, G. W., Taboada, I., Ter-Antonyan, S., Terliuk, A., Thakuri, A., Thiesmeyer, M., Thompson, W. G., Thwaites, J., Tilav, S., Tollefson, K., Torres, J. A., Toscano, S., Tosi, D., Upshaw, K., Vaidyanathan, A., Valtonen-Mattila, N., Valverde, J., Vandenbroucke, J., Van Eeden, T., van Eijndhoven, N., Van Rootselaar, L., van Santen, J., Vara, J., Varsi, F., Velazquez, M., Venugopal, M., Vereecken, M., Carrasco, S. Vergara, Verpoest, S., Veske, D., Vijai, A., Villarreal, J., Walck, C., Wang, A., Warrick, E. H. S., Weaver, C., Weigel, P., Weindl, A., Weldert, J., Wen, A. Y., Wendt, C., Werthebach, J., Weyrauch, M., Whitehorn, N., Wiebusch, C. H., Williams, D. R., Witthaus, L., Wrede, G., Xu, X. W., Yanez, J. P., Yao, Y., Yildizci, E., Yoshida, S., Young, R., Yu, F., Yu, S., Yuan, T., Yun-Cárcamo, S., Jurowitzki, A. Zander, Zegarelli, A., Zhang, A., Zhang, S., Zhang, Z., Zhelnin, P., Zilberman, P., Cañas, C. Zilleruelo
Institutions: Loyola University Chicago, International Center for Hadron Astrophysics, Chiba University, University of Canterbury, Université Libre de Bruxelles, University of Copenhagen, TU Dortmund University, Harvard University, Michigan State University, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Berkeley, The Ohio State University, Ruhr University Bochum, RWTH Aachen University, Technical University of Munich, University of Maryland, College Park, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Queen's University, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, The University of Adelaide, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University of Kansas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, University of Alberta, Ghent University, Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Simon Fraser University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Geneva, University of Alaska Anchorage
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nvidia, Michigan State University, Villum Fonden, Polarforskningssekretariatet, Marquette University, Western Canada Research Grid, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, National Research Foundation of Korea, Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse, Vetenskapsrådet, RWTH Aachen University, Chiba University, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics, Alliance de recherche numérique du Canada, College of Engineering, Michigan State University, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Marsden Fund, Institute for Global Prominent Research, Chiba University, Office of Polar Programs, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
OpenAlex ID: W7164837758