//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20119 SUBJECT: IceCube-161103: IceCube observation of a very-high-energy neutrino DATE: 16/11/03 14:40:56 GMT FROM: Ignacio Taboada at Georgia Inst of Tech Ignacio Taboada (Georgia Institute of Technology) reports on behalf of the IceCube Collaboration (http://icecube.wisc.edu/). On 2016/11/03 IceCube detected a track-like very-high-energy event with a high probability of being of astrophysical origin. The event was a High Energy Starting Event (HESE). The IceCube detector was in a normal operating state. HESE events have a neutrino vertex inside of the detector (to reduce background) and have a high light level (a proxy for energy). After the initial automated alert (http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/notices_amon/38561326_128672.amon), more sophisticated reconstruction algorithms have been applied offline, with the direction refined to: Date: 2016/11/03 Time: 09:07:31.12 UT RA: 40.83 deg (+1.10 -0.70 deg 90% PSF containment) J2000 Dec: 12.56 deg (+1.10 -0.65 deg 90% PSF containment) J2000 We encourage follow-up by ground and space-based instruments to help identify a possible astrophysical source for the candidate neutrino. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic-kilometer neutrino detector operating at the geographic South Pole, Antarctica. The IceCube realtime alert point of contact can be reached at roc@icecube.wisc.edu //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20120 SUBJECT: HAWC follow up of IceCube-161103 DATE: 16/11/03 15:48:45 GMT FROM: Ignacio Taboada at Georgia Inst of Tech Ignacio Taboada (Georgia Tech) reports on behalf of the HAWC collaboration (http://www.hawc-observatory.org/collaboration/): On Nov 3, 2016, 09:07:31 UT, the IceCube collaboration reported a track-like very-high-energy event that has a high probability of being an astrophysical neutrino, IceCube-161103, at RA 40.83 deg and Dec 12.56 deg, J2000 (GCN circular 20119). In HAWC’s sky, the neutrino was at zenith of 40.41 deg and setting. We have searched for a steady source as well as a transient source. * Search for a steady source in archival data from November 2014 to June 2016. Assuming a spectral index of -2.7 we searched in a 1.1 degree circle around IceCube’s reported location. The highest significance, 2.39 sigma, was at RA= 40.12 deg, Dec= 13.09 deg (J2000). Note that there are at least 50 trials in this search, so post-trials significance is lower. We set a time-integrated upper limit 95% CL on gamma rays of: E^2 dN/dE = 1.27e-12 (E/TeV)^-0.7 TeV.cm^-2.s^-1 * Search for a transient source. We have studied the transit of the event in HAWC’s field of view (start 2016/11/03 03:16:09 UTC / stop 2016/11/03 09:27:09 UTC). The most significant location, within 1.1 deg, is 1.1 sigma (RA = 41.26 deg, Dec= 12.18 deg, J2000). HAWC is a very-high-energy gamma-ray observatory operating in Central Mexico at latitude 19 deg. north. Operating day and night with over 95% duty cycle, HAWC has an instantaneous field of view of 2 sr and surveys 2/3 of the sky every day. It is sensitive to gamma rays from 300 GeV to 100 TeV. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20121 SUBJECT: IceCube-161103: MASTER follow-up observations DATE: 16/11/03 22:35:52 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs V.M. Lipunov, A.Tatarnikov, N.V.Tyurina, E.S. Gorbovskoy, A.S.Kuznetsov, P.Balanutsa, V.V.Vladimirov, V.V.Chazov, D.Kuvshinov, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute D.Buckley, S. Potter, A.Kniazev, M.Kotze, South African Astronomical Observatory A. Tlatov, V.Senik, D. Dormidontov, Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory K.Ivanov, O.Gress, N.M.Budnev, S.Yazev, O.Chuvalaev, V.A.Poleshchuk, Irkutsk State University H. Levato, C. Saffe, Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio (ICATE) R. Podesta, C. Lopez, F.Podest Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA) R. Rebolo, M. Serra-Ricart, N. Lodieu, G. Israelian, L. Suarez-Andres The Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias A.Gabovich, V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk MASTER-SAAO robotic telescope (MASTER-Net http://observ.pereplet.ru) located in South Africa was pointed to the IceCube-161103 alert (Taboada et al. GCN 20119, GCN 20120) at 2016-11-03 18:06:35 UT (32344 sec after the trigger time 2016-11-03 09:07:31.12 UT). MASTER auto-detection system doesn't find optical transient within error-box brighter then unfiltered mlim=20.2 mag (the 5-sigma upper limit), W=0.2B+0.8R calibrated by USNO-B1. The observations made on 77 degrees zenit distance , galaxy latitude b = -41 degree. The moon (14 % bright part) is 26 degrees above the horizon. The distance between moon and object is 137deg. Observations started in twilight. The sun altitude is -13.1 degree. The object can be observed till sunrise at 2016-11-04 03:35:05 MASTER-Kislovodsk robotic telescope was pointed to the IceCube-161103 alert 32819 sec after trigger time on 2016-11-03 18:14:30 UT. MASTER auto-detection system doesn't found optical transient within error-box brighter then 20.5m (unfiltered 5-sigma upper limit) The observations made on zenit distance = 47 degrees, galaxy latitude b = -41 degree. The moon (14 % bright part) below the horizon (The altitude of the Moon is -16 degree ). The sun altitude is -46.1 degree. The object can be observed till sunrise at 2016-11-04 03:47:43 The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20122 SUBJECT: INTEGRAL SPI-ACS and IBIS/Veto observation of IceCube-161103 DATE: 16/11/04 09:03:37 GMT FROM: Volodymyr Savchenko at ISDC,U of Geneve V. Savchenko (APC, Paris, France) , C. Ferrigno (ISDC, University of Geneva, CH), P. Ubertini, A. Bazzano, L. Natalucci (INAF IAPS-Roma, Italy), S. Mereghetti (INAF IASF-Milano, Italy), P. Laurent (CEA, Saclay, France), E. Kuulkers (ESAC/ESA, Madrid, Spain) Using INTEGRAL SPI-ACS and IBIS/Veto we have performed a search for a prompt gamma-ray counterpart of the cosmic neutrino candidate IceCube-161103 (GCN 20119). At the time of the event (2016-11-03 09:07:31.12 UTC, hereafter T0), INTEGRAL was operating in the nominal mode. The spacecraft was pointing in the direction of GRS 1915+105, and the neutrino localization was at an angle of 113 deg with respect to the pointing axis. This orientation implies moderately suppressed response of both SPI-ACS and IBIS/Veto, with the best limit provided by SPI-ACS for every considered spectrum for the sources in the 90% PSF containment of IceCube localization. The background within +/-300 seconds around the event was very stable. However, 90 seconds after T0 INTEGRAL/SPI-ACS detected a short excess in a single bin (50 ms), consistent with the properties of the excesses produced in SPI-ACS by cosmic ray interactions. Probability of a cosmic ray effect with these properties happening within the given search time window is 25%. We estimate a 3-sigma upper limit on the 75-2000 keV fluence of 4.6x10^-7 erg/cm^2 for a burst lasting less than 1 s with a characteristic short GRB spectrum (an exponentially cut off power law with alpha=-0.5 and Ep=500 keV) occurring at any time in the interval +/-300 s around T0. For a typical long GRB spectrum (Band function with alpha=-1, beta=-2.5, and Ep=250 keV), the derived peak flux upper limit is ~4.3x10^-7 (1.1x10^-6) erg/cm^2/s at 1 s (8 s) time scale in 75-2000 keV energy range. We also set an upper limit on the peak flux on 8 s time scale with IBIS/Veto at the level of 1.9x10^-6 erg/cm^2/s in 75-2000 keV energy range. No pointed INTEGRAL observations of the location of IceCube-161103 have been performed or planned. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20125 SUBJECT: IceCube-161103: Swift-XRT observations DATE: 16/11/04 14:10:59 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.A. Kennea (PSU), A. Keivani (PSU), D.B. Fox (PSU), G. Tesic (PSU), D.F. Cowen (PSU), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), M.W.E. Smith (JPL) and F.E. Marshall (GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift-IceCube collaboration: Swift has observed the field of the IceCube HESE event IceCube-161103 utilising the on-board 19-point tiling pattern to cover a region centred on RA,Dec (J2000) = (40.874,+12.616), with a radius of approximately 0.8 degrees. Swift-XRT collected between 150 and 250 s of PC mode data per tile. The observations were taken between 13:58:30 and 18:55:15 UT on 2016 November 3 (i.e. from 17.5 ks to 35.3.5 ks after the neutrino trigger), and covered 2.1 square degrees. Four X-ray sources are detected in the observations. None of these are known X-ray emitters, however all are faint, and well below the RASS limits, therefore we do not consider any of them to be likely counterparts to the IceCube trigger. The 3-sigma upper limit on the count rate in the rest of the field ranges is 0.03 ct s^-1, which corresponds to a 0.3-10 keV flux of 1.2e-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 for a typical AGN spectrum (NH=3e20 cm^-2, Gamma=1.7). Overlaps between the different tiles accounts for 0.5 square degrees: in these regions the 3-sigma upper limit is 0.02 ct s^-1, corresponding to 8.1e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1. Details of the four detected X-ray sources are below. All fluxes are 0.3-10 keV and assume the same AGN spectrum as above. Source 1 ======== RA: 02h 42m 42.34s = 40.6764d Dec: +12d 09' 40.1" = 12.1611d Error: 3.5 arcsec (90% confidence radius) Count rate: (3.9 [+1.7, -1.3]) x 10^-2 ct s^-1 Flux: (1.6 [+0.7, -0.5]) x 10^-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 Source 2 ======== RA: 02h 44m 51.43s = 41.2143d Dec: +12d 57' 23.3" = 12.9565d Error: 6.4 arcsec (90% confidence radius) Count rate: (3.8 [+1.8, -1.4]) x 10^-2 ct s^-1 Flux: (1.5 [+0.7, -0.6]) x 10^-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 Source 3 ======== RA: 02h 44m 51.43s = 41.6322d Dec: +12d 34' 09.1" = 12.5692d Error: 3.7 arcsec (90% confidence radius) Count rate: (3.5 [+1.9, -1.4]) x 10^-2 ct s^-1 Flux: (1.4 [+0.7, -0.6]) x 10^-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 Source 4 ======== RA: 02h 46m 07.42s = 41.5309d Dec: +12d 44' 11.3" = 12.7365d Error: 3.0 arcsec (90% confidence radius) Count rate: (3.8 [+1.8, -1.4]) x 10^-2 ct s^-1 Flux: (1.5 [+0.7, -0.6]) x 10^-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20127 SUBJECT: Fermi GBM Observations of IceCube-161103 DATE: 16/11/04 20:44:06 GMT FROM: Eric Burns at U of Alabama E. Burns (UAH), A. Goldstein (USRA), P. Jenke (UAH), M. S. Briggs (UAH), and L. Blackburn (CfA) report on behalf of the Fermi GBM team: We have searched the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor data for a gamma-ray counterpart to the IceCube neutrino 161103 (Taboada 2016, GCN 20119). The location of the neutrino was observed by GBM with good geometry. The closest on-board trigger was more than 10 hours before the neutrino time and was terrestrial in origin. Measurements using the Earth Occultation technique (Wilson-Hodge et al. 2012, ApJS, 201, 33) around this position place a three sigma one day flux upper limit of about 190 mCrab between 12 and 100 keV between October 31st and November 3rd. A seeded search for impulsive emission with duration between 0.128 s and 8.192 s around the time and sky location of the detected neutrino yielded no significant candidates above the GBM background. The search method was developed to look for electromagnetic counterparts in the GBM data of sub-threshold gravitational wave signals found in the LIGO data (Blackburn et al. 2015, ApJS, 217, 8), with improvements to be described in a forthcoming article. Here the search was run from 30 s before to 30 s after the reported neutrino detection time and seeded with its location. A blind search for untriggered impulsive emission in the GBM data centered on the neutrino detection looking for events between 0.1 s and 32 s durations yielded no candidates consistent with the position of the neutrino. This search technique was developed for the detection of untriggered short GRBs in the GBM data (Briggs et al., in prep.). There are some longer term, low energy fluctuations that localize away from the neutrino direction. With no impulsive emission found we set model-dependent 1 second peak flux 3 sigma upper limits on prompt emission. Using a cutoff power law model with index -0.42 and Epeak of 566 keV, representative of a typical short GRB observed by GBM, the limit in the 10-1000 keV range is 9.1x10^-5 erg/cm^2. For a Band function with Epeak, alpha, beta = 300, -1.0, -2.5, similar to long GRBs, gives an upper limit of 4.6x10^-5 erg/cm^2 in 10-1000 keV. These limits are higher than usual as a result of highly variable backgrounds around event time. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20134 SUBJECT: Search for counterpart to IceCube-161103A with ANTARES DATE: 16/11/05 12:47:31 GMT FROM: Damien Dornic at CPPM,France D. Dornic (CPPM/CNRS), A. Coleiro (APC/Universite Paris Diderot) on behalf of the ANTARES Collaboration: Using data from the ANTARES detector, we have performed a follow-up analysis of the recently reported single high-energy (HESE) neutrino IceCube-161103A (AMON IceCube HESE 38561326 128672). The reconstructed origin was 26.1 degrees below the horizon for ANTARES, with this position remaining below the horizon from -2.6h, +8h around the time of the alert. Thus ANTARES had a high sensitivity to any neutrinos from the same region. ANTARES is the largest neutrino detector installed in the Mediterranean Sea, and is primarily sensitive to astrophysical neutrinos in the TeV-PeV energy range. At 10 TeV, the median angular resolution for muon neutrinos is below 0.5 degrees. In the range 1-100 TeV, ANTARES has the best sensitivity to this position in the sky. No up-going muon neutrino candidate events were recorded within three degrees of the IceCube event coordinates during a +/- 1h time-window centered on the IceCube event time. A search on an extended time window of +/- 1 day has also yielded no detection (64% visibility probability). This yields a preliminary 90% confidence level upper limit on the muon-neutrino fluence from a point source of 13 GeV.cm^-2 over the energy range 3.8 TeV-3.8 PeV (the range corresponding to 5-95% of the detectable flux) for an E^-2 power-law spectrum, and 32 GeV.cm^-2 (660 GeV-370 TeV) for an E^-2.5 spectrum. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20139 SUBJECT: IceCube-161103: Konus-Wind upper limits DATE: 16/11/06 16:26:07 GMT FROM: Dmitry Frederiks at Ioffe Institute D. Frederiks, S. Golenetskii, R.Aptekar, P. Oleynik, M. Ulanov, D. Svinkin, A. Tsvetkova, A.Lysenko, A. Kozlova, and T. Cline, on behalf of the Konus-Wind team, report: Using Konus-Wind (KW) data, we have performed a search for a gamma-ray transient around the time of the cosmic neutrino candidate IceCube-161103A (Taboada, GCN 20119; http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/notices_amon/38561326_128672.amon) No triggered KW event happened from ~11 hours before to ~3 days after the IceCube event time (2016-11-03 09:07:31.12 UT, hereafter T0). Using Konus-Wind waiting mode data in the interval T0 ± 1000 s, we estimate an upper limit (90% conf.) on the 20 – 1200 keV fluence to ~9.6x10^-7 erg/cm^2 for a burst lasting less than 2.944 s and having a typical KW short GRB spectrum (an exponentially cut off power law with alpha =-0.5 and Ep=500 keV, Svinkin et al. 2016). For a typical long GRB spectrum (the Band function with alpha=-1, beta=-2.5, and Ep=250 keV), the corresponding limiting peak flux is ~7.2x10^-7 erg/cm^2/s (20 – 1200 keV, 2.944 s scale). All the quoted values are preliminary. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20144 SUBJECT: Fermi LAT Gamma-ray Observations of IceCube-161103 DATE: 16/11/08 00:16:06 GMT FROM: Daniel Kocevski at GSFC D. Kocevski (NASA/MSFC), N. Omodei (Stanford University), M. Ohno (Hiroshima Univ.), and B. Carpenter (Catholic U.), on behalf of the Fermi-LAT collaboration. We report follow-up of the very high-energy IceCube-161103 neutrino event (GCN circular 20119) with all-sky survey data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT), on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The IceCube event was detected on 2016-11-03 09:07:31.12 UTC (T0) with J2000 position, RA = 40.83 deg, Decl. = 12.56 deg. The position was outside the LAT field-of-view at the time of detection and remained so until roughly T0 + 5000s. Therefore, the LAT can place no constraints on the existence of a prompt gamma-ray transient coincident with the detection of the neutrino event. There are no cataloged gamma-ray sources consistent with the IceCube-161103 localization. The closest gamma-ray sources are 3FGL J0239.4+1326 and 3FGL J0242.3+1059 at distances of roughly 1.29 deg and 1.58 deg respectively. Neither show any significant variability in their monthly 3FGL light curves. We also search for the existence of intermediate (hours to days) timescale emission from a new gamma-ray transient source. Preliminary analysis indicates no significant excess gamma-ray emission coincident with the IceCube-161103 localization. Assuming a single power-law (photon index = 2.2 fixed) for a point source at the IceCube position, the >100 MeV flux upper limits (95% confidence) are < 2.5 x 10^-7 ph cm^-2 s^-1 in 1 day of exposure beginning 12 hours prior to the IceCube detection (2016-11-02 07:21:31 UTC) and < 3.1 x 10^-7 ph cm^-2 s^-1 in 12 hours of exposure beginning at the time the IceCube detection (2016-11-03 09:07:31.12 UTC). Longer timescale analysis will continue as data becomes available. Because Fermi operates in an all-sky scanning mode, regular gamma-ray monitoring of this source region will continue. For this source the Fermi LAT contact person is D. Kocevski (e-mail: daniel.kocevski at nasa.gov) The Fermi LAT is a pair conversion telescope designed to cover the energy band from 20 MeV to greater than 300 GeV. It is the product of an international collaboration between NASA and DOE in the U.S. and many scientific institutions across France, Italy, Japan and Sweden. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20162 SUBJECT: IceCube-161103: CALET Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor upper limits DATE: 16/11/10 00:32:06 GMT FROM: Takanori Sakamoto at AGU Y. Kawakubo, A. Yoshida, T. Sakamoto, M. Moriyama, Y. Yamada (AGU), K. Yamaoka (Nagoya U), S. Nakahira (JAXA), I. Takahashi (IPMU), Y. Asaoka, S. Ozawa, S. Torii (Waseda U), Y. Shimizu, T. Tamura (Kanagawa U), W. Ishizaki (ICRR), M. L. Cherry (LSU), S. Ricciarini (U of Florence), P. S. Marrocchesi (U of Siena) and the CALET collaboration: We have performed a search for an X-ray and a gamma-ray counterpart using the CALET Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (CGBM) data around the on-set of the very-high-energy neutrino candidate IceCube-161103A (Taboada, GCN Circ. 20119). The position of the IceCube event at the event time was at the edge of the field of view of HXM (the incident angle was 53 deg), but well inside the field of view of SGM (the incident angle was 43 deg). No CGBM on-board trigger happened around the IceCube event time. By using the CGBM SGM time-history data (0.125 s time resolution), we found no significant signal between +-30 s from the IceCube event time. We estimate 7-sigma upper limit of SGM in the 50-1000 keV band as 5 x 10^-7 erg cm^-2 s^-1 assuming a single power-law model with a photon index of -2 in 1 s exposure. All the quoted values are preliminary and subject to change by a further analysis. The CALET data used in this analysis are provided by the Waseda CALET Operation Center located at the Waseda University.