This episode explores the search for Galactic PeVatrons, powerful cosmic accelerators that boost cosmic rays to PeV energies (1 PeV = 10^15 eV). The study, conducted by researchers using the HAWC gamma-ray observatory and the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, focuses on identifying neutrino emission from known gamma-ray sources.

The study focused on 22 gamma-ray sources detected by HAWC. The researchers first used HAWC data to create a detailed spatial and spectral model for each gamma-ray source. They then combined this information with IceCube neutrino data, looking for evidence of neutrino emission from the same locations. The researchers did not find any significant evidence of neutrino emission from any of the 22 gamma-ray sources.

Publication: R. Alfaro et al., "Search for joint multimessenger signals from potential Galactic PeVatrons with HAWC and IceCube", arXiv:2405.03817

Acknowledgements: Illustration credits WIPAC, Department of Physics, UW–Madison. Podcast created with Google/NotebookLM.