FlareWatch: Toward Open-Access IceCube Gamma Follow-Up Alerts and Collaborative Analysis

Astrophysical neutrinos offer a unique window into the most energetic and distant phenomena in the universe. Detecting them in coincidence with gamma rays is a central goal of modern multimessenger astronomy, enabling the discovery of signals that may not be statistically significant on their own. IceCube, a neutrino observatory located at the South Pole, plays a key role in this effort by issuing real-time alerts when high-energy neutrino events are detected. A key component of this system is the Gamma Follow-Up (GFU) program, which identifies time-clustered neutrino events potentially associated with gamma-ray sources. Traditionally, GFU alerts were distributed privately via a legacy system based on email notifications, accessible only to a restricted network of partner institutions. Dedicated follow-up reports were manually prepared and sent after the fact, limiting the speed and reach of the information. In recent years, there has been a growing effort to modernize this process and make GFU alerts publicly available and easier to access. This thesis directly contributes to that transition by introducing a modern web-based platform that brings IceCube's GFU cluster alerts into the public domain: the FlareWatch. This new platform receives alerts in real time and presents them through an interactive and user-friendly interface, highlighting their significance, timing, and potential association with astrophysical sources. In addition to displaying alerts, the system performs on-the-fly statistical analyses, such as dynamic significance curves, providing deeper insights into the temporal evolution of each source. It also maintains an archival record of alerts, enabling temporal comparisons and source-specific monitoring. All of this is achieved while remaining fully integrated with IceCube’s real-time infrastructure, yet lightweight and fully autonomous. At the time of writing, the IceCube FlareWatch is feature-complete and well-tested, requiring only a brief internal review prior to public deployment. This work marks a concrete step toward a more open, transparent, and connected multimessenger approach.