American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 1(805), p. L5, 2015
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/805/1/l5
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We present constraints derived from a search of four years of IceCube data for a prompt neutrino flux from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). A single low-significance neutrino was found in coincidence with one of the 506 observed bursts, consistent with the expectation from atmospheric backgrounds. Although GRBs have been proposed as candidate sources for ultra-high energy cosmic rays, our limits on the neutrino flux disfavor much of the parameter space for the latest models. We also find that no more than ∼1% of the recently observed astrophysical neutrino flux consists of prompt emission from GRBs that are potentially observable by existing satellites.