Using the Cherenkov Telescope onboard EUSO-SPB2 for Target of Opportunity searches of very high energy neutrino sources

Tobias Heibges; Claire Guépin; Diksha Garg; Luke Kupari; Mary Hall Reno; Tonia M Venters; Lawrence Wiencke; JEM-EUSO Collaboration

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.10332

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Using the Cherenkov Telescope onboard EUSO-SPB2 for Target of Opportunity searches of very high energy neutrino sources

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Using the Cherenkov Telescope onboard EUSO-SPB2 for Target of Opportunity searches of very high energy neutrino sources

Tobias Heibges, Claire Guépin, Diksha Garg, Luke Kupari, Mary Hall Reno, Tonia M Venters, Lawrence Wiencke and JEM-EUSO Collaboration

ArXiv.org

Cornell University

11/13/2025

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2511.10332

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Preprint (Author's original)This preprint has not been evaluated by subject experts through peer review. Preprints may undergo extensive changes and/or become peer-reviewed journal articles. Open Access

Abstract

The Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon 2 (EUSO-SPB2) mission launched from Wanaka New Zealand on May 13, 2023. The mission ended after 36 h due to a balloon leak that resulted in the payload being lost in the Pacific Ocean. Over the course of the mission, the onboard Cherenkov Telescope (CT) was pointed just below the Earth's limb to search for optical signals from upward-moving extensive air showers that were induced by decaying tau-leptons that were generated by the conversion of$>10$PeV tau-neutrinos in Earth. Such very-high energy (VHE) neutrinos may be produced in several classes of astrophysical sources that are suspected of possibly accelerating particles to ultra-high energies. In this contribution, we discuss the EUSO-SPB2 Target-of-Opportunity (ToO) campaign to search for VHE neutrino signals coming from astrophysical sources that crossed the CT's field of view ( $6.4^\circ \times 12.8^\circ$ ). We also present a new software tool designed for scheduling observations, the Neutrino Target Scheduler, that we developed to support the ToO campaign. We also calculate upper limits on the neutrino fluences from sources observed during the ToO campaign. Our observations demonstrate the viability of conducting ToO follow-up observations from a near space environment with future balloon missions, such as the pathfinder mission POEMMA-Balloon with Radio.

Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Details

Title: Subtitle: Using the Cherenkov Telescope onboard EUSO-SPB2 for Target of Opportunity searches of very high energy neutrino sources
Creators: Tobias Heibges
Claire Guépin
Diksha Garg
Luke Kupari - University of Iowa
Mary Hall Reno
Tonia M Venters
Lawrence Wiencke
JEM-EUSO Collaboration
Resource Type: Preprint
Publication Details: ArXiv.org
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2511.10332
ISSN: 2331-8422
Publisher: Cornell University; Ithaca, New York
Language: English
Date posted: 11/13/2025
Academic Unit: Physics and Astronomy
Record Identifier: 9985027465402771

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