Search for neutrino-induced cascades with five years of AMANDA data

We report on the search for electromagnetic and hadronic showers (“cascades”) produced by a diffuse flux of extraterrestrial neutrinos in the AMANDA neutrino telescope. Data for this analysis were recorded during 1001 days of detector livetime in the years 2000–2004. The observed event rates are consistent with the background expectation from atmospheric neutrinos and muons. An upper limit is derived for the diffuse flux of neutrinos of all flavors assuming a flavor ratio of νe:νμ:ντ = 1:1:1 at the detection site. The all-flavor flux of neutrinos with an energy spectrum Φ ∝ E−2 is less than 5.0 × 10−7 GeV s−1 sr−1 cm−2 at a 90% C.L. Here, 90% of the simulated signal would fall within the energy range 40 TeV to 9 PeV. We discuss flux limits in the context of several specific models of extraterrestrial and prompt atmospheric neutrino production.