Observation of high-energy neutrinos from the Galactic plane
Observation of high-energy neutrinos from the Galactic plane
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DOI：
10.1126/science.adc9818
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发表时间：
2023-06
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
R. Abbasi;M. Ackermann;J. Adams;J. Aguilar;M. Ahlers;M. Ahrens;J. Alameddine;A. A. Alves-A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
R. Abbasi;M. Ackermann;J. Adams;J. Aguilar;M. Ahlers;M. Ahrens;J. Alameddine;A. A. Alves-A.
高能宇宙射线，即不断撞击地球大气层的原子核，其起源尚不清楚。由于星际磁场的偏转，银河系内产生的宇宙射线从随机的方向到达地球。然而，宇宙射线在其源附近和传播过程中与物质相互作用，产生高能中微子。我们使用机器学习技术搜索中微子发射，该技术应用于冰立方中微子天文台10年的数据。通过将漫射发射模型与背景假设进行比较，我们确定了银河面中微子发射的显著性水平为4.5σ。这个信号与来自银河系的中微子漫射一致，但也可能来自一群未解析的点源。对高能天体物理中微子的观测表明，它们大多来自河外，如活动星系。然而，伽马射线观测显示，明亮的辐射来自银河系内部，天体物理伽马射线和中微子预计是由相同的物理过程产生的。冰立方合作组织在银河系内部寻找中微子发射（参见Fusco的视角），并发现了沿银河系平面发射额外中微子的证据，这与伽马射线发射的分布是一致的。这些结果表明，高能中微子可以由银河系附近的源产生。天体物理学家基思·t·史密斯中微子是从银河系的平面发射出来的，这意味着附近存在中微子源。
The origin of high-energy cosmic rays, atomic nuclei that continuously impact Earth’s atmosphere, is unknown. Because of deflection by interstellar magnetic fields, cosmic rays produced within the Milky Way arrive at Earth from random directions. However, cosmic rays interact with matter near their sources and during propagation, which produces high-energy neutrinos. We searched for neutrino emission using machine learning techniques applied to 10 years of data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. By comparing diffuse emission models to a background-only hypothesis, we identified neutrino emission from the Galactic plane at the 4.5σ level of significance. The signal is consistent with diffuse emission of neutrinos from the Milky Way but could also arise from a population of unresolved point sources. Description Editor’s summary Observations of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos have shown that they mostly originate from extragalactic sources such as active galaxies. However, gamma ray observations show bright emission from within the Milky Way galaxy, and astrophysical gamma rays and neutrinos are expected to be produced by the same physical processes. The IceCube Collaboration searched for neutrino emission from within the Milky Way (see the Perspective by Fusco) and found evidence of extra neutrinos emitted along the plane of the Galaxy, which is consistent with the distribution of gamma-ray emission. These results imply that high-energy neutrinos can be generated by nearby sources within the Milky Way. —Keith T. Smith Astrophysical neutrinos are emitted from the plane of the Milky Way galaxy, implying the presence of nearby sources.