Resolving the Galactic Center Region's Gamma-Ray Emission and Searching for its Neutrino Counterpart with HAWC and IceCube
Abstract
The Galactic Center (GC) is a prime candidate for petaelectronvolt cosmic-ray acceleration, with gamma-ray emission observed by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory extending beyond 100 TeV. We present an analysis of the GC using ~2860 days of HAWC data, with increased exposure and improved sensitivity relative to previous results. The best-fit gamma-ray emission model includes a point source (HAWC J1745-2857) and a Galactic diffuse emission component. Assuming a hadronic origin, we construct the corresponding neutrino signal template and search for it in 12 years of IceCube muon-track data. No significant neutrino excess is found, and we report the first upper limit on the high-energy neutrino flux associated with the multi-component spatial model of the GC derived from HAWC data. The limit is approximately 12 times the nominal neutrino flux predicted from the HAWC gamma-ray model under a hadronic interpretation, and therefore it does not yet test the optically thin hadronic scenario.
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BibTeX
@misc{yuncarcamo2026resolving,
title = {{Resolving the Galactic Center Region's Gamma-Ray Emission and Searching for its Neutrino Counterpart with HAWC and IceCube}},
author = {S. Yun-Carcamo and R. Babu and for the HAWC and IceCube collaborations},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.22577},
eprint = {2609.22577},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22577},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Resolving the Galactic Center Region's Gamma-Ray Emission and Searching for its Neutrino Counterpart with HAWC and IceCube
AU - S. Yun-Carcamo
AU - R. Babu
AU - for the HAWC
AU - IceCube collaborations
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/18
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.22577
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22577
AB - The Galactic Center (GC) is a prime candidate for petaelectronvolt cosmic-ray acceleration, with gamma-ray emission observed by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory extending beyond 100 TeV. We present an analysis of the GC using ~2860 days of HAWC data, with increased exposure and improved sensitivity relative to previous results. The best-fit gamma-ray emission model includes a point source (HAWC J1745-2857) and a Galactic diffuse emission component. Assuming a hadronic origin, we construct the corresponding neutrino signal template and search for it in 12 years of IceCube muon-track data. No significant neutrino excess is found, and we report the first upper limit on the high-energy neutrino flux associated with the multi-component spatial model of the GC derived from HAWC data. The limit is approximately 12 times the nominal neutrino flux predicted from the HAWC gamma-ray model under a hadronic interpretation, and therefore it does not yet test the optically thin hadronic scenario.
ER -