Searches for neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions in the Sun using seven years of IceCube data

Understand

Cosmic-ray interactions with the solar atmosphere are expected to produce particle showers which in turn produce neutrinos from weak decays of mesons.

• These solar atmospheric neutrinos (SA$\nu$s) have never been observed experimentally.
• A detection would be an important step in understanding cosmic-ray propagation in the inner solar system and the dynamics of solar magnetic fields.
• SA$\nu$s also represent an irreducible background to solar dark matter searches and a detection would allow precise characterization of this background.