Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 82: Neutrino Astronomy IV

T 82.3: Talk

Thursday, March 19, 2026, 16:45–17:00, KS H C

Unfolding the Electron Neutrino Spectrum — •Lene Van Rootselaar and Lukas Liland for the IceCube collaboration — TU Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a cubic-kilometre detector located in the Antarctic ice at the South Pole, provides unique sensitivity to neutrinos over energies spanning from the GeV to the PeV scale. In this energy regime, the observed neutrino flux is expected to arise from a combination of conventional atmospheric neutrinos produced in pion and kaon decays, a possible prompt atmospheric contribution from charmed hadron decays, and an astrophysical component of extragalactic origin. Disentangling these contributions, in particular in the transition region where the prompt flux may become relevant, is essential for advancing our understanding of high-energy particle interactions in the atmosphere.

This contribution describes the current status of an analysis aimed at determining the electron neutrino energy spectrum in IceCube in the range from roughly 1 TeV to 4 PeV using a cascade event sample. A spectral unfolding technique is used to infer the neutrino energy distribution while minimizing dependence on assumed flux models. Ongoing studies of the detector response, Monte Carlo validation, and the impact of systematic uncertainties will be presented.

Keywords: Electron Neutrino; Tau Neutrino; Unfolding; Energy Spectrum; Cascades