First Double Cascade Tau Neutrino Candidates in IceCube and a New Measurement of the Flavor Composition

Abstract

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, which detects Cherenkov light from charged particles produced in neutrino interactions, firmly established the existence of an astrophysical high-energy neutrino component. The expected neutrino flavor composition on Earth is $\nu_e:\nu_{\mu}:\nu_{\tau}$ of about 1:1:1 for neutrinos produced in astrophysical sources through pion decay. A measurement of the flavor composition on Earth can provide important constraints on sources and production mechanisms within the standard model, and can also constrain various beyond-standard-model processes. Here the measurement of the flavor composition performed on IceCube's High-Energy Starting Events sample with a livetime of about 7.5 years is presented. IceCube is directly sensitive to each neutrino flavor via the single cascade, track and double cascade event topologies. In IceCube, $\nu_{\tau}$-CC interactions above $\sim$ 100 TeV can produce resolvable double cascades, breaking the degeneracy between $\nu_e$ and $\nu_{\tau}$ present at lower energies. IceCube's first two identified double cascades are presented and the properties of the two $\nu_{\tau}$ candidates are discussed.