The Galactic Contribution to IceCube's Astrophysical Neutrino Flux

Abstract

High energy neutrinos have been detected by IceCube, but their origin remains a mystery. Determining the sources of this flux is a crucial first step towards multi-messenger studies. In this work we systematically compare two classes of sources with the data: Galactic and extragalactic. We assume that the neutrino sources are distributed according to a class of Galactic models. We build a likelihood function on an event by event basis including energy, event topology, absorption, and direction information. We present the probability that each high energy event with deposited energy $E_{\mathrm{dep}}>60$ TeV in the HESE sample is Galactic, extragalactic, or background. For Galactic models considered the Galactic fraction of the astrophysical flux has a best fit value of $1.3\%$ and is $<9.5\%$ at 90\% CL. A zero Galactic flux is allowed at $<1\sigma$.

Comments: Updated with 6 year HESE data from IceCube, accepted for publication in JCAP