Correlated neutrino and gamma-ray emission from Active Galactic Nuclei - an estimation

Abstract

Active galactic nuclei are among the candidates for sources which produce the extragalactic charged cosmic ray flux. However, the composition of their emission regions and the processes leading to their gamma-ray emission are still being investigated. A detection of neutrinos from these sources would prove the presence of hadrons in the emission region and thus establish AGN as sources of the charged cosmic rays. The search for neutrinos from astrophysical sources has been performed for many years now, employing e.g. the AMANDA and now the just-completed IceCube detector. However, the persistent absence of a detection suggests to venture an estimate on the neutrino flux which can be expected from AGN. The method presented here is based on bolometric considerations. We assume that the energy released through the different types of particles is related. On this basis the measured flux of gamma-rays from AGN can be utilized to estimate the possible output in neutrinos. We are aiming at an estimation of the expected neutrino flux, following basic assumptions. The resulting flux estimations show that a detection of single sources still appears to be out of reach. Still, the investigation of a stacked sample of AGN with additional constraints in time and energy seems promising.