The question of the origin of cosmic rays has long been a topic of central importance in astroparticle physics. Spectral features suggest the existence of sources in our Galaxy capable of accelerating cosmic rays to PeV energies; these have yet to be definitively identified.

Supernova remnants (SNRs) contain shock fronts with the necessary size and magnetic field to accelerate particles to ultrarelativistic energies through diffusive shock acceleration and are generally considered to be the main contributors to the cosmic ray flux in the “knee” area. In the presence of an interstellar cloud (or other relatively dense object) near an SNR, interactions between cosmic rays and matter within the cloud produce gamma rays and neutrinos which, unlike the cosmic rays themselves, are electrically neutral. SNR-cloud pairs should thus produce a detectable neutrino excess at a well-defined point in the sky.

We present a pipeline which models SNR–molecular cloud pairs and predicts the neutrino flux from cosmic-ray interactions within the cloud. It determines the energy spectrum and release times of protons accelerated in the SNR, then models their diffusion through the interstellar medium to find the flux incident on the molecular cloud. It then calculates the spectrum of neutrinos produced by interactions of the incident cosmic rays with hydrogen in the cloud. Finally, this is converted into the neutrino spectrum as observed from Earth.

We find that many of the regions predicted to contain the brightest sources correlate with previously-identified regions of gamma emission, suggesting that the pipeline is effective in identifying potentially significant SNR–cloud combinations. These results may be used as the basis for an IceCube source search in future, although further investigation of significant candidates is needed.