Combined significance of spatial coincidence of high energy neutrinos from PSR B1509-58 by Super-Kamiokande and MACRO

Abstract

Abstract In their searches for astrophysical point sources of high energy neutrinos, both the Super-Kamiokande and MACRO neutrino detectors saw the largest angular excess from the same source, viz. PSR B1509-58. We estimate the probability for the observed number of events by both Super-Kamiokande and MACRO to be a chance coincidence due to atmospheric neutrino background. We find that this probability is about 0.4%, corresponding to 2.6σ significance. We also propose some additional tests to ascertain if this excess corresponds to an astrophysical signal or is only a background event.