Speaker
Description
Searches for significant astrophysical neutrino emissions in the IceCube Neutrino Observatory are an important cornerstone in multi-messenger astronomy. By combining neutrino data with observations from other cosmic messengers from different telescopes and identifying spatial and temporal correlations, a rich picture of the panorama of astrophysical emissions can be achieved. IceCube has been contributing to this effort by sending alerts when remarkable observations are encountered. Among these streams of alerts, the Gamma-ray Follow-Up (GFU) program identifies neutrino flares from significant clusters of IceCube events and shares alerts to partner Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
GFU cluster alerts work on two main fronts: the Source List mode, which tests clusters of detected events against the location of known electromagnetic sources; and the All-Sky Mode which scans for locations in the full sky. As part of an ongoing effort to increase the effectiveness of these alerts, GFU is shifting to releasing its alerts publicly, including the release of FlareWatch, an interactive website that will be accessible by the multi-messenger community to follow-up observations.
Additionally, the All-sky mode is updated to include a statistically robust error on the direction of identified neutrino flares. Throughout all of this work, the simulations and likelihood calculations that provide a basis for the analysis are being updated to reflect our current understanding of sources as well as the present capabilities of the detector. This contribution presents the current landscape of these updates to the GFU program and discusses how they inform its importance to the multi-messenger effort.
