High-energy Neutrino Production Research Articles

On the possibilities of high-energy neutrino production in the jets of microquasar SS433 in light of new observational data

Microquasar SS433 is composed by a supergiant star that feeds mass through a supercritical accretion disk to a ∼10 M⊙ black hole. The latter launches two oppositely directed jets that precess with a period of 162 days. The system has been detected at different spatial scales in frequencies ranging from radio to gamma rays, and has long been considered as a potential neutrino source which has been observed by AMANDA in the past, and later IceCube, leading to more restrictive upper bounds on the neutrino flux. In this work, we explore the possibilities that neutrinos could be produced in the jets of this source at levels consistent, or at least, not incompatible with any current data on electromagnetic emission available. In order to do so, we consider the injection of both electrons and protons at different positions in the jets, and we compute their broadband photon emission by synchrotron and interactions with ambient photons and matter. After correcting the high energy photon flux by the effect of γγ and γN absorption, we obtain the surviving flux that arrive on Earth and compare it with observational data by gamma-ray detectors. The flux of high energy neutrinos is consistently computed and we find that if they are eventually detected with IceCube, production must take place at the inner jets, where gamma-ray absorption is important, in order to avoid current VHE constraints form HESS and MAGIC. Additionally, we find that if the flux of 25 TeV gamma-rays recently detected with HAWC and which corresponds to the jet termination region were produced mainly by pp interactions, this would lead to a too faint neutrino flux that is beyond the reach of IceCube in its present configuration.

Latest results on high-energy cosmic neutrino searches with the ANTARES neutrino telescope

The ANTARES detector is currently the largest undersea neutrino telescope. Located in the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of 2.5 km, 40 km off the Southern coast of France, it has been looking for cosmic neutrinos for more than 10 years. High-energy cosmic neutrino production is strongly linked with cosmic ray production. The latest results from IceCube Collaboration represent a step forward towards the confirmation of a highenergy cosmic ray source. The ANTARES location in the Northern Hemisphere is optimal for the observation of most of the Galactic Plane, including the Galactic Center. It has constrained the IceCube neutrino excess reports as well as, more recently, the flux from the source identified in the Blazar TXS 0506+056. The latest results of ANTARES on such analyses, including point-like and extended sources, diffuse fluxes, transient phenomena and multi-messenger studies, are presented.

New vistas in charm production

We discuss some new aspects of charm production trigerred by recent observations of the LHCb collaboration. The LHCb collaboration measured small asymmetries in production of D+D−mesons as well as $ D_s^ + D_s^ - $ mesons. Is this related to initial quark/antiquark asymmetries in the proton ? Here we discuss a scenario in which unfavored fragmentations $ q/\bar {q} \to D $ and $ s/\bar {s} \to D_s $ are responsible for the asymmetries. We fix the strength of such fragmentations – transition probabilities, by adjusting to the size of the LHCb asymmetries. This has consequences for production of D mesons in forward directions (large xF ) as well as at low energies. Large asymmetries are predicted then in these regions. We present here some of our predictions. Consequences for high-energy neutrino production in the atmosphere are discussed and quantified. The production of Λc baryon at the LHC is disussed. Large deviations from the independent-parton fragmentation picture are found.

A Multimessenger Picture of the Flaring Blazar TXS 0506+056: Implications for High-energy Neutrino Emission and Cosmic-Ray Acceleration

Abstract Detection of the IceCube-170922A neutrino coincident with the flaring blazar TXS 0506+056, the first and only ∼3σ high-energy neutrino source association to date, offers a potential breakthrough in our understanding of high-energy cosmic particles and blazar physics. We present a comprehensive analysis of TXS 0506+056 during its flaring state, using newly collected Swift, NuSTAR, and X-shooter data with Fermi observations and numerical models to constrain the blazar’s particle acceleration processes and multimessenger (electromagnetic (EM) and high-energy neutrino) emissions. Accounting properly for EM cascades in the emission region, we find a physically consistent picture only within a hybrid leptonic scenario, with γ-rays produced by external inverse-Compton processes and high-energy neutrinos via a radiatively subdominant hadronic component. We derive robust constraints on the blazar’s neutrino and cosmic-ray emissions and demonstrate that, because of cascade effects, the 0.1–100 keV emissions of TXS 0506+056 serve as a better probe of its hadronic acceleration and high-energy neutrino production processes than its GeV–TeV emissions. If the IceCube neutrino association holds, physical conditions in the TXS 0506+056 jet must be close to optimal for high-energy neutrino production, and are not favorable for ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray acceleration. Alternatively, the challenges we identify in generating a significant rate of IceCube neutrino detections from TXS 0506+056 may disfavor single-zone models, in which γ-rays and high-energy neutrinos are produced in a single emission region. In concert with continued operations of the high-energy neutrino observatories, we advocate regular X-ray monitoring of TXS 0506+056 and other blazars in order to test single-zone blazar emission models, clarify the nature and extent of their hadronic acceleration processes, and carry out the most sensitive possible search for additional multimessenger sources.

High-energy gamma-ray and neutrino production in star-forming galaxies across cosmic time: Difficulties in explaining the IceCube data

Abstract We present new theoretical modeling to predict the luminosity and spectrum of gamma-ray and neutrino emission of a star-forming galaxy, from the star formation rate (ψ), gas mass (Mgas), stellar mass, and disk size, taking into account production, propagation, and interactions of cosmic rays. The model reproduces the observed gamma-ray luminosities of nearby galaxies detected by Fermi better than the simple power-law models as a function of ψ or ψMgas. This model is then used to predict the cosmic background flux of gamma-rays and neutrinos from star-forming galaxies, by using a semi-analytical model of cosmological galaxy formation that reproduces many observed quantities of local and high-redshift galaxies. Calibration of the model using gamma-ray luminosities of nearby galaxies allows us to make a more reliable prediction than previous studies. In our baseline model, star-forming galaxies produce about 20% of the isotropic gamma-ray background unresolved by Fermi, and only 0.5% of IceCube neutrinos. Even with an extreme model assuming a hard injection cosmic-ray spectral index of 2.0 for all galaxies, at most 22% of IceCube neutrinos can be accounted for. These results indicate that it is difficult to explain most of the IceCube neutrinos by star-forming galaxies, without violating the gamma-ray constraints from nearby galaxies.

Neutrinos from Supernovae

Neutrinos are fundamental particles in the collapse of massive stars. Because of their weakly interacting nature, neutrinos can travel undisturbed through the stellar core and be direct probes of the still uncertain and fascinating supernova mechanism. Intriguing recent developments on the role of neutrinos during the stellar collapse are reviewed, as well as our current understanding of the flavor conversions in the stellar envelope. The detection perspectives of the next burst and of the diffuse supernova background will be also outlined. High-energy neutrinos in the GeV-PeV range can follow the MeV neutrino emission. Various scenarios concerning the production of high-energy neutrinos are discussed.

High-energy Neutrinos from Millisecond Magnetars Formed from the Merger of Binary Neutron Stars

Abstract The merger of a neutron star (NS) binary may result in the formation of a long-lived, or indefinitely stable, millisecond magnetar remnant surrounded by a low-mass ejecta shell. A portion of the magnetar’s prodigious rotational energy is deposited behind the ejecta in a pulsar wind nebula, powering luminous optical/X-ray emission for hours to days following the merger. Ions in the pulsar wind may also be accelerated to ultra-high energies, providing a coincident source of high-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos. At early times, the cosmic rays experience strong synchrotron losses; however, after a day or so, pion production through photomeson interaction with thermal photons in the nebula comes to dominate, leading to efficient production of high-energy neutrinos. After roughly a week, the density of background photons decreases sufficiently for cosmic rays to escape the source without secondary production. These competing effects result in a neutrino light curve that peaks on a few day timescale near an energy of ∼1018eV. This signal may be detectable for individual mergers out to ∼10 (100) Mpc by current (next generation) neutrino telescopes, providing clear evidence for a long-lived NS remnant, the presence of which may otherwise be challenging to identify from the gravitational waves alone. Under the optimistic assumption that a sizable fraction of NS mergers produce long-lived magnetars, the cumulative cosmological neutrino background is estimated to be for an NS merger rate of , overlapping with IceCube’s current sensitivity and within the reach of next-generation neutrino telescopes.

High energy neutrinos from the tidal disruption of stars

We study the production of high energy neutrinos in jets from the tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes. The diffuse neutrino flux expected from these tidal disruption events (TDEs) is calculated both analytically and numerically, taking account the dependence of the rate of TDEs on the redshift and black hole mass. We find that ~10% of the observed diffuse flux at IceCube at an energy of about 1 PeV can come from TDEs if the characteristics of known jetted tidal disruption events are assumed to apply to the whole population of these sources. If, however, plausible scalings of the jet Lorentz factor or variability timescale with the black hole mass are taken into account, the contribution of the lowest mass black holes to the neutrino flux is enhanced. In this case, TDEs can account for most of the neutrino flux detected at IceCube, describing both the neutrino flux normalization and spectral shape with moderate baryonic loadings. While the uncertainties on our assumptions are large, a possible signature of TDEs as the origin of the IceCube signal is the transition of the flux flavor composition from a pion beam to a muon damped source at the highest energies, which will also result in a suppression of Glashow resonance events.

Prompt neutrino fluxes in the atmosphere with PROSA parton distribution functions

Effects on atmospheric prompt neutrino fluxes of present uncertainties affecting the nucleon composition are studied by using the PROSA fit to parton distribution functions (PDFs). The PROSA fit extends the precision of the PDFs to low x, which is the kinematic region of relevance for high-energy neutrino production, by taking into account LHCb data on charm and bottom hadroproduction collected at the center-of-mass energy of sqrt{s}=7 TeV. In the range of neutrino energies explored by present Very Large Volume Neutrino Telescopes, it is found that PDF uncertainties are far smaller with respect to those due to renormalization and factorization scale variation and to assumptions on the cosmic ray composition, which at present dominate and limit our knowledge of prompt neutrino fluxes. A discussion is presented on how these uncertainties affect the expected number of atmospheric prompt neutrino events in the analysis of high-energy events characterized by interaction vertices fully contained within the instrumented volume of the detector, performed by the IceCube collaboration.

Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos

We discuss the production of ultra high energy neutrinos coming from the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays and in the framework of top-down models for the production of these extremely energetic particles. We show the importance of the detection of ultra high energy neutrinos that can be a fundamental diagnostic tool to solve the discrepancy in the observed chemical composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays and, at the extreme energies, can unveil new physics in connection with the recent cosmological observations of the possible presence of tensor modes in the fluctuation pattern of the cosmic microwave background.

Choked jets and low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts as hidden neutrino sources

We consider gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets that are choked by extended material as sources of high-energy cosmic neutrinos. We take into account the jet propagation physics both inside the progenitor star and the surrounding dense medium. Radiation constraints, which are relevant for high-energy neutrino production are considered as well. Efficient shock acceleration of cosmic rays is possible for sufficiently low-power jets and/or jets buried in a dense, extended wind or outer envelope. Such conditions also favor GRB jets to become stalled, and the necessary conditions for stalling are explicitly derived. Such choked jets may explain transrelativistic supernovae (SNe) and low-luminosity (LL) GRBs, giving a unified picture of GRBs and GRB-SNe. Focusing on this unified scenario for GRBs, we calculate the resulting neutrino spectra from choked jets including the relevant microphysical processes such as multipion production in pp and pgamma interactions, as well as the energy losses of mesons and muons. We obtain diffuse neutrino spectra using the latest results for the luminosity function of LL GRBs. Although uncertainties are large, we confirm that LL GRBs can potentially give a significant contribution to the diffuse neutrino flux. Our results are consistent with the present IceCube data and do not violate the stacking limits on classical high-luminosity GRBs. We find that high-energy neutrino production in choked jets is dominated by pgamma interactions. These sources are dark in GeV-TeV gamma-rays, and do not contribute significantly to the Fermi diffuse gamma-ray background. Assuming stalled jets can launch a quasi-spherical shock in the dense medium, precursor TeV neutrinos emerging prior to the shock breakout gamma-ray emission can be used as smoking gun evidence for a choked jet model for LL GRBs. Our results strengthen the relevance of wide field-of-view sky monitors.

IceCube constraints on fast-spinning pulsars as high-energy neutrino sources

Relativistic winds of fast-spinning pulsars have been proposed as a potential site for cosmic-ray acceleration from very high energies (VHE) to ultrahigh energies (UHE). We re-examine conditions for high-energy neutrino production, considering the interaction of accelerated particles with baryons of the expanding supernova ejecta and the radiation fields in the wind nebula. We make use of the current IceCube sensitivity in diffusive high-energy neutrino background, in order to constrain the parameter space of the most extreme neutron stars as sources of VHE and UHE cosmic rays. We demonstrate that the current non-observation of 1018 eV neutrinos put stringent constraints on the pulsar scenario. For a given model, birthrates, ejecta mass and acceleration efficiency of the magnetar sources can be constrained. When we assume a proton cosmic ray composition and spherical supernovae ejecta, we find that the IceCube limits almost exclude their significant contribution to the observed UHE cosmic-ray flux. Furthermore, we consider scenarios where a fraction of cosmic rays can escape from jet-like structures piercing the ejecta, without significant interactions. Such scenarios would enable the production of UHE cosmic rays and help remove the tension between their EeV neutrino production and the observational data.

Inspecting the supernova–gamma-ray-burst connection with high-energy neutrinos

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been often considered as the natural evolution of some core-collapse supernovae (SNe). While GRBs with relativistic jets emit an electromagnetic signal, GRBs with mildly relativistic jets are opaque to photons and, therefore, could be detectable through neutrinos only. We discuss the possibility that successful GRBs and mildly relativistic jets belong to the same class of astrophysical transients with different Lorentz factor Gamma_b and study the production of high-energy neutrinos as a function of Gamma_b, by including both proton-photon and proton-proton interactions. By assuming a SN-GRB connection, we find that the diffuse neutrino emission from optically thick jets with Lorentz factors lower than the ones of successful GRBs can be one of the main components of the observed IceCube high-energy neutrino flux. Moreover, under the assumption that all these jets belong to the same class of astrophysical transients, we show that the IceCube high-energy neutrino data provide indirect constraints on the rate of non-successful jets, favoring a local rate lower than tens of percent of the local SN rate. These limits are currently comparable to the ones obtained in dedicated searches on choked sources and are expected to become tighter with accumulation of more high-energy neutrino data.

Could a multi-PeV neutrino event have as origin the internal shocks inside the GRB progenitor star?

The IceCube Collaboration initially reported the detection of 37 extraterrestrial neutrinos in the TeV–PeV energy range. The reconstructed neutrino events were obtained during three consecutive years of data taking, from 2010 to 2013. Although these events have been discussed to have an extragalactic origin, they have not been correlated to any known source. Recently, the IceCube Collaboration reported a neutrino-induced muon event with energy of 2.6±0.3 PeV which corresponds to the highest event ever detected. Neither the reconstructed direction of this event (J2000.0), detected on June 11 2014 at R.A.=110°.34, Dec.=11°.48 matches with any familiar source. Long gamma-ray bursts (lGRBs) are usually associated with the core collapse of massive stars leading relativistic-collimated jets inside stars with high-energy neutrino production. These neutrinos have been linked to the 37 events previously detected by IceCube experiment. In this work, we explore the conditions and values of parameters so that the highest neutrino recently detected could be generated by proton–photon and proton–hadron interactions at internal shocks inside lGRB progenitor star and then detected in IceCube experiment. Considering that internal shocks take place in a relativistic collimated jet, whose (half) opening angle is θ0∼0.1, we found that lGRBs with total luminosity L≲1048 erg/s and internal shocks on the surface of progenitors such as Wolf–Rayet (WR) and blue super giant (BSG) stars favor this multi-PeV neutrino production, although this neutrino could be associated with L∼1050.5 (∼1050) erg/s provided that the internal shocks occur at ∼109(∼1010.2) cm for a WR (BSG).

高能中微子天文观测进展

The production and propagation of cosmic rays in the universe are usually accompanied by high energy neutrino production. High energy neutrino astronomy is a unique window for high energy astrophysics. Recently, the south-pole neutrino experiment IceCube has reported the detections of 37 high energy (>TeV) events, which reject pure atmospheric origin in 5.7s confidence level. This is the first detection of extraterrestrial high energy neutrinos, opening a brand new window to observe the universe, and marking the birth of the high energy neutrino astronomy. In this paper, we briefly introduce the history of high energy neutrino astronomy, the high energy neutrino experiments, the recent results from IceCube, and then we make general discussion on the origin of IceCube detected neutrinos, and finally some prospects in high energy neutrino astronomy.

Gamma-rays, neutrinos and cosmic rays from dense regions in open clusters

We analyse the high energy processes, occurring within open clusters containing massive binary systems, which turn to the production of high energy γ-rays and neutrinos. Nuclei, accelerated within the binary systems, inject protons and neutrons as a result of their fragmentation in collisions with stellar radiation and matter of the winds. We calculate the radiation produced by these protons and neutrons during their interaction with the matter of the stellar wind and the open cluster. The detectability of γ-ray emission and neutrino emission by the present and future Cherenkov telescopes and the neutrino telescopes is discussed.

Diffuse neutrino intensity from the inner jets of active galactic nuclei: Impacts of external photon fields and the blazar sequence

We study high-energy neutrino production in inner jets of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN), taking into account effects of external photon fields and the blazar sequence. We show that the resulting diffuse neutrino intensity is dominated by quasar-hosted blazars, in particular, flat spectrum radio quasars, and that PeV-EeV neutrino production due to photohadronic interactions with broadline and dust radiation is unavoidable if the AGN inner jets are ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) sources. Their neutrino spectrum has a cutoff feature around PeV energies since target photons are due to $\mathrm{Ly}\ensuremath{\alpha}$ emission. Because of infrared photons provided by the dust torus, neutrino spectra above PeV energies are too hard to be consistent with the IceCube data unless the proton spectral index is steeper than 2.5, or the maximum proton energy is $\ensuremath{\lesssim}100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{PeV}$. Thus, the simple model has difficulty in explaining the IceCube data. For the cumulative neutrino intensity from blazars to exceed $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}8}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}\text{ }{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\text{ }{\mathrm{sr}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, their local cosmic-ray energy generation rate would be $\ensuremath{\sim}10--100$ times larger than the local UHECR emissivity but is comparable to the averaged $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray blazar emissivity. Interestingly, future detectors such as the Askaryan Radio Array can detect $\ensuremath{\sim}0.1--1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{EeV}$ neutrinos even in more conservative cases, allowing us to indirectly test the hypothesis that UHECRs are produced in the inner jets. We find that the diffuse neutrino intensity from radio-loud AGN is dominated by blazars with $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray luminosity of $\ensuremath{\gtrsim}1{0}^{48}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{erg}\text{ }{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, and the arrival directions of their $\ensuremath{\sim}1--100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{PeV}$ neutrinos correlate with the luminous blazars detected by Fermi.

The role of hadronic cascades in GRB models of efficient neutrino production

We investigate the effects of hadronic cascades on the gamma-ray burst (GRB) prompt emission spectra in scenarios of efficient neutrino production. By assuming a fiducial GRB spectrum and a power-law proton distribution extending to ultra-high energies, we calculate the proton cooling rate and the neutrino emission produced through photopion processes. For this, we employ a numerical code that follows the formation of the hadronic cascade by taking into account non-linear feedback effects, such as the evolution of the target photon field itself due to the contribution of secondary particles. We show that in cases of efficient proton cooling and subsequently efficient high-energy neutrino production, the emission from the hadronic cascade distorts and may even dominate the GRB spectrum. Taking this into account, we constrain the allowable values of the ratio $\eta_p=L_p/L_{\gamma}$, where $L_{p}$ and $L_{\gamma}$ are the isotropic equivalent proton and prompt gamma-ray luminosities. For the highest value of $\eta_{p}$ that does not lead to the dominance of the cascading emission, we then calculate the maximum neutrino luminosity from a single burst and show that it ranges between $(0.01- 0.6)L_{p}$ and $(0.5-1.4)L_{\gamma}$ for various parameter sets. We discuss possible implications of other parameters, such as the magnetic field strength and the shape of the initial gamma-ray spectrum, on our results. Finally, we compare the upper limit on $\eta_p$ derived here with various studies in the field, and we point out the necessity of a self-consistent treatment of the hadronic emission in order to avoid erroneously high neutrino fluxes from GRB models.

A two-zone approach to neutrino production in gamma-ray bursts

Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are the most powerful events in the universe. They are capable of accelerating particles to very high energies, so are strong candidates as sources of detectable astrophysical neutrinos. We study the effects of particle acceleration and escape by implementing a two-zone model in order to assess the production of high-energy neutrinos in GRBs associated with their prompt emission. Both primary relativistic electrons and protons are injected in a zone where an acceleration mechanism operates and dominates over the losses. The escaping particles are re-injected in a cooling zone that propagates downstream. The synchrotron photons emitted by the accelerated electrons are taken as targets for $p\gamma$ interactions, which generate pions along with the $pp$ collisions with cold protons in the flow. The distribution of these secondary pions and the decaying muons are also computed in both zones, from which the neutrino output is obtained. We find that for escape rates lower than the acceleration rate, the synchrotron emission from electrons in the acceleration zone can account for the GRB emission, and the production of neutrinos via $p\gamma$ interactions in this zone becomes dominant for $E_\nu>10^5$ GeV. For illustration, we compute the corresponding diffuse neutrino flux under different assumptions and show that it can reach the level of the signal recently detected by IceCube.

ON THE PRODUCTION OF HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRINOS IN GAMMA-RAY BURSTS

We present preliminary results of a model with two zones in order to study the production of high energy neutrinos at the prompt phase of gamma-ray bursts (GRB). We consider an acceleration zone, where protons and electrons are injected and accelerated, being subject to synchrotron, proton-proton, and proton-gamma cooling. We also assume that they can escape from this zone at a certain rate. The produced pions and the decaying muons are also subject to energy loss and gain processes within the acceleration zone, and the escaping ones are re-injected in a second zone where acceleration no longer operates. We compute the neutrino output expected from both of these zones using typical GRB parameters, and integrate in the redshift to obtain a diffuse neutrino flux which can be different from the expected within one-zone models.