Observation of the 4f ground-state symmetry in strongly correlated cubic Pr compounds probed by linearly polarized 3d core-level photoemission spectroscopy

•Linear dichroism (LD) in Pr3+ 3d5/2 core-level photoemission spectra has been observed for cubic PrB6, PrIr2Zn20 and PrBe13.•The experimental LDs and polarization-dependent spectra are well reproduced by ionic-model calculations.•The 4f ground-state symmetry of cubic Pr compounds can be determined by linearly polarized Pr 3d core-level photoemission spectroscopy.