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Noble element time projection chambers are a leading technology for rare event detection in physics, such as for dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay searches. Time projection chambers typically assign event position in the drift direction using the relative timing of prompt scintillation and delayed charge collection signals, allowing for reconstruction of an absolute position in the drift direction. In this paper, alternate methods for assigning event drift distance via quantification of electron diffusion in a pure high pressure xenon gas time projection chamber are explored. Data from the NEXT-White detector demonstrate the ability to achieve good position assignment accuracy for both high- and low-energy events. Using point-like energy deposits from$$^{83\textrm{m}}$$ ${}^{83\text{m}}$Kr calibration electron captures ($$E\sim 45$$ $E\sim 45$ keV), the position of origin of low-energy events is determined to 2 cm precision with bias$$< 1~$$ $<1$mm. A convolutional neural network approach is then used to quantify diffusion for longer tracks ($$E\ge ~1.5$$ $E\ge 1.5$ MeV), from radiogenic electrons, yielding a precision of 3 cm on the event barycenter. The precision achieved with these methods indicates the feasibility energy calibrations of better than 1% FWHM at Q$$_{\beta \beta }$$ ${}_{\beta \beta }$in pure xenon, as well as the potential for event fiducialization in large future detectors using an alternate method that does not rely on primary scintillation. 

Abstract Ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) have infrared luminosities L IR ≥ 10 12 L ⊙ , making them the most luminous objects in the infrared sky. These dusty objects are generally powered by starbursts with star formation rates that exceed 100 M ⊙ yr −1 , possibly combined with a contribution from an active galactic nucleus. Such environments make ULIRGs plausible sources of astrophysical high-energy neutrinos, which can be observed by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. We present a stacking search for high-energy neutrinos from a representative sample of 75 ULIRGs with redshift z ≤ 0.13 using 7.5 yr of IceCube data. The results are consistent with a background-only observation, yielding upper limits on the neutrino flux from these 75 ULIRGs. For an unbroken E −2.5 power-law spectrum, we report an upper limit on the stacked flux Φ ν μ + ν ¯ μ 90 % = 3.24 × 10 − 14 TeV − 1 cm − 2 s − 1 ( E / 10 TeV ) − 2.5 at 90% confidence level. In addition, we constrain the contribution of the ULIRG source population to the observed diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux as well as model predictions.