Sources Of High-energy Neutrinos Research Articles

Towards multi-messenger observations of core-collapse supernovae harbouring choked jets

Context. Over the past decade, choked jets have attracted particular attention as potential sources of high-energy cosmic neutrinos. It is challenging to test this hypothesis because of the missing gamma-ray counterpart. An identification of other electromagnetic signatures is therefore crucial. Extended H envelopes surrounding collapsing massive stars might choke launched jets. In addition, the same progenitors are expected to produce a shock-breakout signal in the ultraviolet (UV) and optical that lasts several days. Early UV radiation in particular carries important information about the presence and nature of choked jets. Aims. While UV observations of core-collapse supernovae have so far been limited, the full potential of observations in this spectral band will soon be transformed by the ULTRASAT satellite mission with its unprecedented field of view. We investigated the detection prospects of choked jet progenitors by ULTRASAT in relation to their visibility in the optical band by the currently operating telescope ZTF. In addition, as choked jets can produce neutrinos via hadronic and photohadronic interactions in choked jets, we also investigated how neutrino observations by existing Cherenkov high-energy neutrino telescopes (e.g. IceCube and KM3NeT) can be used in association with electromagnetic signals from shock-breakout events. Methods. By considering fiducial parameters of the source population and instrument performances, we estimated the maximum redshift up to which ULTRASAT and ZTF are able to detect ultraviolet and optical signals from these explosions, respectively. Furthermore, we discuss coordinated multi-messenger observations using ULTRASAT, ZTF, and high-energy neutrino telescopes. Results. We find that ULTRASAT will double the volume of the sky that is currently visible by ZTF for the same emitting sources. This will enlarge the sample of observed Type II supernovae by ∼60%. For optimised multi-messenger detections, the delay between neutrinos produced at the shock breakout (during the jet propagation inside the stellar envelope) and ULTRASAT observations should be of ∼4 (5) days, with subsequent follow-up by instruments such as ZTF about one week later. We estimate that fewer than 1% of the core-collapse supernovae from red supergiant stars that are detectable in UV with ULTRASAT might host a choked jet and release TeV neutrinos. Electromagnetic and neutrino detections, if accompanied by additional photometric and spectroscopic follow-up with compelling evidence for a relativistic jet launched by the central engine of the source, would suggest that core-collapse supernovae harbouring choked jets are the main contributors to the diffuse astrophysical high-energy neutrino flux.

Revealing the Production Mechanism of High-energy Neutrinos from NGC 1068

The detection of high-energy neutrino signals from the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068 provides us with an opportunity to study nonthermal processes near the center of supermassive black holes. Using the IceCube and latest Fermi-LAT data, we present general multimessenger constraints on the energetics of cosmic rays and the size of neutrino emission regions. In the photohadronic scenario, the required cosmic-ray luminosity should be larger than ∼1%−10% of the Eddington luminosity and the emission radius should be ≲15R S in low-β plasma and ≲3R S in high-β plasma. The leptonic scenario overshoots the NuSTAR or Fermi-LAT data for any emission radii we consider, and the required gamma-ray luminosity is much larger than the Eddington luminosity. The beta-decay scenario also violates not only the energetics requirement but also gamma-ray constraints, especially when the Bethe–Heitler and photomeson production processes are consistently considered. Our results rule out the leptonic and beta-decay scenarios in a nearly model-independent manner and support hadronic mechanisms in magnetically powered coronae if NGC 1068 is a source of high-energy neutrinos.

Search for neutrino emission from GRB 221009A using the KM3NeT ARCA and ORCA detectors

Gamma-ray bursts are promising candidate sources of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. The recent GRB 221009A event, identified as the brightest gamma-ray burst ever detected, provides a unique opportunity to investigate hadronic emissions involving neutrinos. The KM3NeT undersea neutrino detectors participated in the worldwide follow-up effort triggered by the event, searching for neutrino events. In this paper, we summarize subsequent searches, in a wide energy range from MeV up to a few PeVs. No neutrino events are found in any of the searches performed. Upper limits on the neutrino emission associated with GRB 221009A are computed.

Potential of water-Cherenkov air shower arrays for detecting transient sources of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos

Potential of water-Cherenkov air shower arrays for detecting transient sources of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos

A two-step strategy to identify episodic sources of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos in starburst galaxies

A two-step strategy to identify episodic sources of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos in starburst galaxies

Constraints on the Origins of the Galactic Neutrino Flux Detected by IceCube

Galactic and extragalactic objects in the Universe are sources of high-energy neutrinos that may contribute to the astrophysical neutrino signal seen by IceCube. Recently, a study done using cascade-like events seen by IceCube reported neutrino emission from the Galactic plane with >4σ significance. In this work, we put a lower limit on the number of Galactic sources required to explain this emission. To achieve this, we use a simulation package created to simulate point sources in the Galaxy along with the neutrino and gamma-ray flux emissions originating from them. Along with using past IceCube discovery potential curves, we also account for Eddington bias effects due to Poisson fluctuations in the number of detected neutrino events. We present a toy Monte Carlo simulation to show that there must be at least eight sources, each with luminosity less than 1.6 × 1035 erg s−1, responsible for the Galactic neutrino emission. Our results constrain the number of individual point-like emission regions, which apply both to discrete astrophysical sources and to individual points of diffuse emission.

Searches for Neutrinos in the Direction of Radio-bright Blazars with the ANTARES Telescope

Active galaxies, especially blazars, are among the most promising extragalactic candidates for high-energy neutrino sources. To date, ANTARES searches included these objects and used GeV–TeV γ-ray flux to select blazars. Here, a statistically complete blazar sample selected by their bright radio emission is used as the target for searches of origins of neutrinos collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope over 13 yr of operation. The hypothesis of a neutrino–blazar directional correlation is tested by pair counting and a complementary likelihood-based approach. The resulting posttrial p-value is 3.0% (2.2σ in the two-sided convention). Additionally, a time-dependent analysis is performed to search for temporal clustering of neutrino candidates as a means of detecting neutrino flares in blazars. None of the investigated sources alone reaches a significant flare detection level. However, the presence of 18 sources with a pretrial significance above 3σ indicates a p = 1.4% (2.5σ in the two-sided convention) detection of a time-variable neutrino flux. An a posteriori investigation reveals an intriguing temporal coincidence of neutrino, radio, and γ-ray flares of the J0242+1101 blazar at a p = 0.5% (2.9σ in the two-sided convention) level. Altogether, the results presented here suggest a possible connection of neutrino candidates detected by the ANTARES telescope with radio-bright blazars.

Establishing accretion flares from supermassive black holes as a source of high-energy neutrinos

ABSTRACT The origin of cosmic high-energy neutrinos remains largely unexplained. For high-energy neutrino alerts from IceCube, a coincidence with time-variable emission has been seen for three different types of accreting black holes: (1) a gamma-ray flare from a blazar (TXS 0506+056), (2) an optical transient following a stellar tidal disruption event (TDE; AT2019dsg), and (3) an optical outburst from an active galactic nucleus (AGN; AT2019fdr). For the latter two sources, infrared follow-up observations revealed a powerful reverberation signal due to dust heated by the flare. This discovery motivates a systematic study of neutrino emission from all supermassive black hole with similar dust echoes. Because dust reprocessing is agnostic to the origin of the outburst, our work unifies TDEs and high-amplitude flares from AGN into a population that we dub accretion flares. Besides the two known events, we uncover a third flare that is coincident with a PeV-scale neutrino (AT2019aalc). Based solely on the optical and infrared properties, we estimate a significance of 3.6σ for this association of high-energy neutrinos with three accretion flares. Our results imply that at least ∼10 per cent of the IceCube high-energy neutrino alerts could be due to accretion flares. This is surprising because the sum of the fluence of these flares is at least three orders of magnitude lower compared to the total fluence of normal AGN. It thus appears that the efficiency of high-energy neutrino production in accretion flares is increased compared to non-flaring AGN. We speculate that this can be explained by the high Eddington ratio of the flares.

Embedded software of the KM3NeT central logic board

The KM3NeT Collaboration is building and operating two deep sea neutrino telescopes at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The telescopes consist of latices of photomultiplier tubes housed in pressure-resistant glass spheres, called digital optical modules and arranged in vertical detection units. The two main scientific goals are the determination of the neutrino mass ordering and the discovery and observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe. Neutrinos are detected via the Cherenkov light, which is induced by charged particles originated in neutrino interactions. The photomultiplier tubes convert the Cherenkov light into electrical signals that are acquired and timestamped by the acquisition electronics. Each optical module houses the acquisition electronics for collecting and timestamping the photomultiplier signals with one nanosecond accuracy. Once finished, the two telescopes will have installed more than six thousand optical acquisition nodes, completing one of the more complex networks in the world in terms of operation and synchronization. The embedded software running in the acquisition nodes has been designed to provide a framework that will operate with different hardware versions and functionalities. The hardware will not be accessible once in operation, which complicates the embedded software architecture. The embedded software provides a set of tools to facilitate remote manageability of the deployed hardware, including safe reconfiguration of the firmware. This paper presents the architecture and the techniques, methods and implementation of the embedded software running in the acquisition nodes of the KM3NeT neutrino telescopes. Program summaryProgram title: Embedded software for the KM3NeT CLBCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/s847hpsns4.1Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License 3Programming language: CNature of problem: The challenge for the embedded software in the KM3NeT neutrino telescope lies in orchestrating the Digital Optical Modules (DOMs) to achieve the synchronized data acquisition of the incoming optical signals. The DOMs are the crucial component responsible for capturing neutrino interactions deep underwater. The embedded software must configure and precisely time the operation of each DOM. Any deviation or timing mismatch could compromise data integrity, undermining the scientific value of the experiment. Therefore, the embedded software plays a critical role in coordinating, synchronizing, and operating these modules, ensuring they work in unison to capture and process neutrino signals accurately, ultimately advancing our understanding of fundamental particles in the Universe.Solution method: The embedded software on the DOMs provides a solution based on a C-based bare-metal application, operating without a real-time embedded OS. It is loaded into the RAM during FPGA configuration, consuming less than 256 kB of RAM. The software architecture comprises two layers: system software and application. The former offers OS-like features, including a multitasking scheduler, firmware updates, peripheral drivers, a UDP-based network stack, and error handling utilities. The application layer contains a state machine ensuring consistent program states. It is navigated via slow control events, including external inputs and autonomous responses. Subsystems within the application code control specific acquisition electronics components via the associated driver abstractions.Additional comments including restrictions and unusual features: Due to the operation conditions of the neutrino telescope, where access is restricted, the embedded software implements a fail-safe procedure to reconfigure the firmware where the embedded software runs.

High-energy neutrino-induced cascade from the direction of the flaring radio blazar TXS 0506 + 056 observed by Baikal-GVD in 2021

ABSTRACT The existence of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos has been unambiguously demonstrated, but their sources remain elusive. IceCube reported an association of a 290-TeV neutrino with a gamma-ray flare of TXS 0506 + 056, an active galactic nucleus with a compact radio jet pointing to us. Later, radio-bright blazars were shown to be associated with IceCube neutrino events with high statistical significance. These associations remained unconfirmed with the data of independent experiments. Here, we report on the detection of a rare neutrino event with the estimated energy of 224 ± 75 TeV from the direction of TXS 0506 + 056 by the new Baikal Gigaton Volume Detector (Baikal-GVD) in April 2021. This event is the highest energy cascade detected so far by the Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope from a direction below horizon. The result supports previous suggestions that radio blazars in general, and TXS 0506 + 056 in particular, are the sources of high-energy neutrinos, and opens up the cascade channel for the neutrino astronomy.

Searching for temporary gamma-ray dark blazars associated with IceCube neutrinos

Context. Tensions between the diffuse gamma-ray sky observed by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) and the diffuse, high-energy neutrino sky detected by the IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory raise questions about our knowledge of high-energy neutrino sources in the gamma-ray regime. While blazars are among the most energetic persistent particle accelerators in the Universe, studies suggest that they could account for up to 10–30% of the neutrino flux measured by IceCube. Aims. Our recent results highlight that the associated IceCube neutrinos arrived in a local gamma-ray minimum (dip) of three strong neutrino point-source candidates. Here, we increase the sample of neutrino-source candidates in order to study their gamma-ray light curves. Methods. We generated the one-year Fermi-LAT light curve for eight neutrino-source candidate blazars (RBS 0958, GB6 J1040+0617, PKS 1313-333, TXS 0506+056, PKS 1454-354, NVSS J042025-374443, PKS 0426-380, and PKS 1502+106), centered on the detection time of the associated IceCube neutrinos. We applied the Bayesian block algorithm to the light curves to characterize their variability. Results. Our results indicate that GB6 J1040+0617 was in a phase of high gamma-ray activity, while none of the other seven neutrino-source candidates were statistically bright during the detection of the corresponding neutrinos; indeed, most of the time neutrinos arrived in a faint gamma-ray phase of the light curves. This suggests either that the eight source candidate blazars (associated with seven neutrino events) in our reduced sample are not the sources of the corresponding IceCube neutrinos, or that an in-source effect (e.g., the suppression of gamma rays due to high gamma-gamma opacity) complicates the multimessenger scenario of neutrino emission for these blazars.

Neutrinos from near and far: Results from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Instrumenting a gigaton of ice at the geographic South Pole, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has been at the forefront of groundbreaking scientific discoveries over the past decade. These include the observation of a flux of TeV-PeV astrophysical neutrinos, detection of the first astrophysical neutrino on the Glashow resonance and evidence of the blazar TXS 0506+056 as the first known astronomical source of high-energy neutrinos. Several questions, however, remain, pertaining to the precise origins of astrophysical neutrinos, their production mechanisms at the source and in Earth’s atmosphere and in the context of physics beyond the Standard Model. This proceeding highlights some of our latest results, from new constraints on neutrino interactions and oscillations to the latest measurements of the astrophysical neutrino flux and searches for their origins to future prospects with IceCube-Gen2.

Probing neutrino production in high-energy astrophysical neutrino sources with the Glashow resonance

Probing neutrino production in high-energy astrophysical neutrino sources with the Glashow resonance

NGC 1068 constraints on neutrino-dark matter scattering

The IceCube collaboration has observed the first steady-state point source of high-energy neutrinos, coming from the active galaxy NGC 1068. If neutrinos interacted strongly enough with dark matter, the emitted neutrinos would have been impeded by the dense spike of dark matter surrounding the supermassive black hole at the galactic center, which powers the emission. We derive a stringent upper limit on the scattering cross section between neutrinos and dark matter based on the observed events and theoretical models of the dark matter spike. The bound can be stronger than that obtained by the single IceCube neutrino event from the blazar TXS 0506+056 for some spike models.

Growing evidence for high-energy neutrinos originating in radio blazars

ABSTRACT Evidence for bright-radio blazars being high-energy neutrino sources was found in recent years. However, specifics of how and where these particles get produced still need to be determined. In this paper, we add 14 new IceCube events from 2020–2022 to update our analysis of the neutrino-blazars connection. We test and refine earlier findings by utilizing the total of 71 track-like high-energy IceCube events from 2009–2022. We correlate them with the complete sample of 3412 extragalactic radio sources selected by their compact radio emission. We demonstrate that neutrinos are statistically associated with radio-bright blazars with a post-trial p-value of 3 · 10−4. In addition to this statistical study, we confirm previous individual neutrino-blazar associations, find and discuss several new ones. Notably, PKS 1741 − 038 was selected earlier and had a second neutrino detected from its direction in 2022; PKS 0735 + 168 has experienced a major flare across the whole electromagnetic spectrum coincidently with a neutrino arrival from that direction in 2021.

Constraining High-energy Neutrino Emission from Supernovae with IceCube

Core-collapse supernovae are a promising potential high-energy neutrino source class. We test for correlation between seven years of IceCube neutrino data and a catalog containing more than 1000 core-collapse supernovae of types IIn and IIP and a sample of stripped-envelope supernovae. We search both for neutrino emission from individual supernovae as well as for combined emission from the whole supernova sample, through a stacking analysis. No significant spatial or temporal correlation of neutrinos with the cataloged supernovae was found. All scenarios were tested against the background expectation and together yield an overall p-value of 93%; therefore, they show consistency with the background only. The derived upper limits on the total energy emitted in neutrinos are 1.7 × 1048 erg for stripped-envelope supernovae, 2.8 × 1048 erg for type IIP, and 1.3 × 1049 erg for type IIn SNe, the latter disfavoring models with optimistic assumptions for neutrino production in interacting supernovae. We conclude that stripped-envelope supernovae and supernovae of type IIn do not contribute more than 14.6% and 33.9%, respectively, to the diffuse neutrino flux in the energy range of about [ 103–105] GeV, assuming that the neutrino energy spectrum follows a power-law with an index of −2.5. Under the same assumption, we can only constrain the contribution of type IIP SNe to no more than 59.9%. Thus, core-collapse supernovae of types IIn and stripped-envelope supernovae can both be ruled out as the dominant source of the diffuse neutrino flux under the given assumptions.

Testing hadronic and photohadronic interactions as responsible for ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and neutrino fluxes from starburst galaxies

We test the hypothesis of starburst galaxies as sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and high-energy neutrinos. The computation of interactions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays in the starburst environment as well as in the propagation to the Earth is made using a modified version of the Monte Carlo code {\it SimProp}, where hadronic processes in the environment of sources are implemented for the first time. Taking into account a star-formation-rate distribution of sources, the fluxes of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and high-energy neutrinos are computed and compared with observations, and the explored parameter space for the source characteristics is discussed. We find that, depending on the density of the gas in the source environment, spallation reactions could exceed theoutcome in neutrinos from photo-hadronic interactions in the source environment and in the extra-galactic space.

A Search for Coincident Neutrino Emission from Fast Radio Bursts with Seven Years of IceCube Cascade Events

This paper presents the results of a search for neutrinos that are spatially and temporally coincident with 22 unique, nonrepeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) and one repeating FRB (FRB 121102). FRBs are a rapidly growing class of Galactic and extragalactic astrophysical objects that are considered a potential source of high-energy neutrinos. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory’s previous FRB analyses have solely used track events. This search utilizes seven years of IceCube cascade events which are statistically independent of track events. This event selection allows probing of a longer range of extended timescales due to the low background rate. No statistically significant clustering of neutrinos was observed. Upper limits are set on the time-integrated neutrino flux emitted by FRBs for a range of extended time windows.

Limits on Neutrino Emission from GRB 221009A from MeV to PeV Using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have long been considered a possible source of high-energy neutrinos. While no correlations have yet been detected between high-energy neutrinos and GRBs, the recent observation of GRB 221009A—the brightest GRB observed by Fermi-GBM to date and the first one to be observed above an energy of 10 TeV—provides a unique opportunity to test for hadronic emission. In this paper, we leverage the wide energy range of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory to search for neutrinos from GRB 221009A. We find no significant deviation from background expectation across event samples ranging from MeV to PeV energies, placing stringent upper limits on the neutrino emission from this source.

Search for Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Coincidences Using HAWC and ANTARES Data

In the quest for high-energy neutrino sources, the Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network has implemented a new search by combining data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory and the Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch (ANTARES) neutrino telescope. Using the same analysis strategy as in a previous detector combination of HAWC and IceCube data, we perform a search for coincidences in HAWC and ANTARES events that are below the threshold for sending public alerts in each individual detector. Data were collected between 2015 July and 2020 February with a live time of 4.39 yr. Over this time period, three coincident events with an estimated false-alarm rate of <1 coincidence per year were found. This number is consistent with background expectations.