IceCube Real-time Searches for High-energy Neutrinos Coincident with LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Gravitational-Wave Alerts in O4a
Abstract
Gravitational-wave events from mergers of compact objects are a predicted source of high-energy neutrinos. Using data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, we search for neutrinos coincident with 85 significant and 945 low-significance gravitational-wave candidate events from compact binary coalescences published in real-time by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration during the first part of its fourth observing run (O4a) and its preceding engineering run, within a time window of ±500 seconds from the merger time. We report improvements to the online pipelines, including automatic sending of notices, which improved the median IceCube real-time response compared to the previous observing run by a factor of 2.7 times faster. In addition, we search for long-duration neutrino emission from three candidate events: two neutron star-black hole mergers and one low-significance gravitational-wave event with a possible subthreshold gamma-ray counterpart. We use two methods, both of which have been previously used to search for neutrinos from gravitational-wave transients: an unbinned maximum likelihood analysis on significant alerts and a Bayesian analysis accounting for astrophysical priors on all alerts. We find no statistically significant emission from any individual gravitational-wave event analyzed. In the unbinned maximum likelihood search, the lowest p-value event is S231029y, with p=0.0079 ($0.752$ post-trials). In the Bayesian search, the lowest p-value for significant events is S230904n, with p=0.0076 ($0.9996$ post-trials), and for low-significance events is S231025a, with p=0.0011 ($0.678$ post-trials), with an overall population p-value of $0.55$. We accordingly set upper limits for each event on the time-integrated flux and energy emitted in neutrinos, assuming isotropic emission.
Related
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- Lorentz-Invariance Violation with neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts using IceCube High-Energy Starting Events 12-year dataset
- IceCube neutrino point-source searches in the direction of the KM3NeT ultra-high-energy event
- Are neutrinos Majorana? Fixed-target and high-energy astrophysical searches decide
BibTeX
@misc{collaboration2026icecube,
title = {{IceCube Real-time Searches for High-energy Neutrinos Coincident with LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Gravitational-Wave Alerts in O4a}},
author = {The IceCube Collaboration and R. Abbasi and M. Ackermann and J. Adams and J. A. Aguilar and M. Ahlers and J. M. Alameddine and S. Ali and N. M. Amin and K. Andeen and C. Argüelles and Y. Ashida and S. Athanasiadou and S. N. Axani and R. Babu and X. Bai and A. Balagopal V. and S. W. Barwick and V. Basu and R. Bay and J. J. Beatty and J. Becker Tjus and P. Behrens and J. Beise and C. Bellenghi and S. Benkel and S. BenZvi and D. Berley and E. Bernardini and D. Z. Besson and E. Blaufuss and L. Bloom and S. Blot and F. Bontempo and J. Y. Book Motzkin and C. Boscolo Meneguolo and S. Böser and O. Botner and J. Böttcher and J. Braun and B. Brinson and Z. Brisson-Tsavoussis and L. Brusa and R. T. Burley and D. Butterfield and K. Carloni and J. Carpio and N. Chau and Y. C. Chen and Z. Chen and D. Chirkin and S. Choi and A. Chubarov and B. A. Clark and G. H. Collin and D. A. Coloma Borja and A. Connolly and J. M. Conrad and D. F. Cowen and C. De Clercq},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.13762},
eprint = {2606.13762},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.13762},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - IceCube Real-time Searches for High-energy Neutrinos Coincident with LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Gravitational-Wave Alerts in O4a
AU - The IceCube Collaboration
AU - R. Abbasi
AU - M. Ackermann
AU - J. Adams
AU - J. A. Aguilar
AU - M. Ahlers
AU - J. M. Alameddine
AU - S. Ali
AU - N. M. Amin
AU - K. Andeen
AU - C. Argüelles
AU - Y. Ashida
AU - S. Athanasiadou
AU - S. N. Axani
AU - R. Babu
AU - X. Bai
AU - A. Balagopal V.
AU - S. W. Barwick
AU - V. Basu
AU - R. Bay
AU - J. J. Beatty
AU - J. Becker Tjus
AU - P. Behrens
AU - J. Beise
AU - C. Bellenghi
AU - S. Benkel
AU - S. BenZvi
AU - D. Berley
AU - E. Bernardini
AU - D. Z. Besson
AU - E. Blaufuss
AU - L. Bloom
AU - S. Blot
AU - F. Bontempo
AU - J. Y. Book Motzkin
AU - C. Boscolo Meneguolo
AU - S. Böser
AU - O. Botner
AU - J. Böttcher
AU - J. Braun
AU - B. Brinson
AU - Z. Brisson-Tsavoussis
AU - L. Brusa
AU - R. T. Burley
AU - D. Butterfield
AU - K. Carloni
AU - J. Carpio
AU - N. Chau
AU - Y. C. Chen
AU - Z. Chen
AU - D. Chirkin
AU - S. Choi
AU - A. Chubarov
AU - B. A. Clark
AU - G. H. Collin
AU - D. A. Coloma Borja
AU - A. Connolly
AU - J. M. Conrad
AU - D. F. Cowen
AU - C. De Clercq
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.13762
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.13762
AB - Gravitational-wave events from mergers of compact objects are a predicted source of high-energy neutrinos. Using data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, we search for neutrinos coincident with 85 significant and 945 low-significance gravitational-wave candidate events from compact binary coalescences published in real-time by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration during the first part of its fourth observing run (O4a) and its preceding engineering run, within a time window of ±500 seconds from the merger time. We report improvements to the online pipelines, including automatic sending of notices, which improved the median IceCube real-time response compared to the previous observing run by a factor of 2.7 times faster. In addition, we search for long-duration neutrino emission from three candidate events: two neutron star-black hole mergers and one low-significance gravitational-wave event with a possible subthreshold gamma-ray counterpart. We use two methods, both of which have been previously used to search for neutrinos from gravitational-wave transients: an unbinned maximum likelihood analysis on significant alerts and a Bayesian analysis accounting for astrophysical priors on all alerts. We find no statistically significant emission from any individual gravitational-wave event analyzed. In the unbinned maximum likelihood search, the lowest p-value event is S231029y, with p=0.0079 ($0.752$ post-trials). In the Bayesian search, the lowest p-value for significant events is S230904n, with p=0.0076 ($0.9996$ post-trials), and for low-significance events is S231025a, with p=0.0011 ($0.678$ post-trials), with an overall population p-value of $0.55$. We accordingly set upper limits for each event on the time-integrated flux and energy emitted in neutrinos, assuming isotropic emission.
ER -