Location: Boggs 1-90 (CRA Visualization Lab)

Thesis Advisor: Ignacio Taboada

Committee:

Dr. Deirdre Shoemaker, Physics

Dr. Nepomuk Otte, Physics

Dr. Laura Cadonati, Physics

Dr. Paul Steffes, ECE

Abstract:

IceCube has reported the observation of 35 neutrino events above 30 TeV with evidence
for an astrophysical neutrino flux using data collected from May 2010 to May 2013. This
study is a model independent search for directional and temporal correlation between 856
gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and the astrophysical neutrino flux observed by IceCube. Nearly
10,000 expanding time windows centered on the earliest reported time of the burst were
examined. The time windows start at ±10 s and extend to ±15 days. We find no evidence
of correlations for these time windows and set an upper limit on the fraction of the astro-
physical flux that can be attributed to the observed GRBs as a function of the time window.
GRBs can contribute at most 12% of the astrophysical neutrino flux if the neutrino-GRB
correlation time is less than ≈20 hours, and no more than 38% of the astrophysical neutrino
flux can be attributed to the known GRBs at time scales up to 15 days. We conclude that
GRBs observable by satellites are not solely responsible for IceCubes astrophysical neutrino
flux, even if very long correlation time scales are assumed.