Probing magnetars as high-energy neutrino emitters with IceCube

Magnetars are neutron stars with very strong magnetic fields on the orders of 1e13 to 1e15 G. The spin-down of these objects and the power resulting from decay of magnetic fields, which produce ample near-surface photons, are in principle the two main power sources of a magnetar. Assuming both of these energy sources power the magnetar, and the magnetar is young enough, the criterion for hadronic acceleration and interactions is satisfied. These hadronic interactions would also result in the production of high-energy (HE) neutrinos. Giant flares of soft gamma-ray repeaters (a subclass of magnetars) may also produce HE neutrinos and therefore a HE neutrino flux from this class is potentially detectable. Here we present our search for neutrino emission from magnetars using 10 years of muon-neutrino candidate events from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a cubic kilometer neutrino detector located at the South Pole.