Deep Search for Joint Sources of Gravitational Waves and High-energy Neutrinos with IceCube during the Third Observing Run of LIGO and Virgo
The Astrophysical Journal American Astronomical Society 1003:1 (2026) 41
Abstract:
The discovery of joint sources of high-energy neutrinos and gravitational waves has been a primary target for the LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and IceCube observatories. The joint detection of high-energy neutrinos and gravitational waves would provide insight into cosmic processes, from the dynamics of compact object mergers and stellar collapses to the mechanisms driving relativistic outflows. The joint detection of multiple cosmic messengers can also elevate the significance of the common observation even when some or all of the constituent messengers are subthreshold, i.e., not significant enough to declare their detection individually. Using data from the LIGO, Virgo, and IceCube observatories, including subthreshold events, we searched for common sources of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos during the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. Our search did not identify significant joint sources. We derive constraints on the rate densities of joint sources. Our results constrain the isotropic neutrino emission from gravitational-wave sources for very high values of the total energy emitted in neutrinos (>1052–1054 erg).GollumFit: An IceCube Open-Source Framework for Binned-Likelihood Neutrino Telescope Analyses
Computer Physics Communications Elsevier (2026) 110195
Abstract:
We present GollumFit, a framework designed for performing binned-likelihood analyses on neutrino telescope data. GollumFit incorporates model parameters common to any neutrino telescope and also model parameters specific to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. We provide a high-level overview of its key features and how the code is organized. We then discuss the performance of the fitting in a typical analysis scenario, highlighting the ability to fit over tens of nuisance parameters. We present some examples showing how to use the package for likelihood minimization tasks. This framework uniquely incorporates the particular model parameters necessary for neutrino telescopes, and solves an associated likelihood problem in a time-efficient manner. PROGRAM Program title: GollumFit Documentation website: https://docs.icecube.aq/gollumfit/main/index.html Developer's repository link: https://github.com/icecube/GollumFit Licensing provisions: GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1 (LGPL) Programming language: C++, Python Nature of problem: Statistical analysis of data from neutrino telescope experiments is often complex and computationally demanding, owing to the need to optimize a likelihood function over many parameters that describe sources of systematic uncertainties and quantities of interest. Solution method: We introduce a framework that performs binned-likelihood optimization, whose performance can handle the number of parameters typical for a neutrino telescope analysis. We highlight a method to perform event-by-event reweighting to incorporate the experimental parameters. In particular, for neutrino telescopes the parameters that incorporate the uncertainties in the atmospheric neutrino flux are common across all experiments and analyses, and are implemented in our framework. The framework has been designed to be easily extendable in the number of observable dimensions and fit parameters. Finally, we use an automatic differentiation package to achieve computational speed in the likelihood optimization.Physics potential of the IceCube Upgrade for atmospheric neutrino oscillations
Physical Review D American Physical Society (APS) 113:7 (2026) 072009
Abstract:
The IceCube Upgrade is an extension of the existing IceCube Neutrino Observatory and will be deployed in the 2025–2026 austral summer. It will significantly improve the sensitivity of the detector to atmospheric neutrino oscillations. The existing 86-string IceCube array contains a dense in-fill known as DeepCore which is optimized to measure neutrinos with energies down to a few GeV. The IceCube Upgrade will consist of seven new densely instrumented strings placed within the DeepCore volume to further enhance the performance in the GeV energy range. The additional strings will feature new optical modules, each containing multiple photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), in contrast to the existing modules that each contain a single PMT. This will more than triple the number of PMT channels with respect to the current IceCube configuration, allowing for improved detection efficiency and reconstruction performance at GeV energies. We describe necessary updates to simulation, event selection, and reconstruction to accommodate the higher data rates observed by the upgraded detector and the addition of multi-PMT modules. We determine the expected sensitivity of the IceCube Upgrade to the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters and , the appearance of tau neutrinos and the neutrino mass ordering. The IceCube Upgrade will provide neutrino oscillation measurements that are of similar precision to those from accelerator experiments, while providing complementarity by probing higher energies and longer baselines, and with different sources of systematic uncertainties.Evidence for a Spectral Break or Curvature in the Spectrum of Astrophysical Neutrinos from 5 TeV to 10 PeV
Physical Review Letters American Physical Society (APS) 136:12 (2026) 121002
Abstract:
We report improved measurements of the all flavor astrophysical neutrino spectrum with IceCube by combining complementary neutrino samples in two independent analyses. Both analyses show evidence of a harder spectrum at energies below ∼30 TeV compared to higher energies where the spectrum is well characterized by a power law. The spectrum is better described by a log parabola or a broken power law, the latter being the preferred model. Both, however, reject a single power law over an energy range 5 TeV–10 PeV with a significance >4σ, providing new constraints on properties of cosmic neutrino sources.Evidence for Neutrino Emission from X-Ray Bright Seyfert Galaxies in the Southern Hemisphere Using Enhanced Starting Track Events with IceCube
The Astrophysical Journal Letters American Astronomical Society 1000:2 (2026) L37