The IceCube Collaboration has published four years of data and the observed neutrino flux is significantly in excess of the expected atmospheric background. Due to the steeply falling atmospheric ...background spectrum, events at the highest energies are most likely extraterrestrial. In our previous approach we have studied blazars as the possible origin of the High-Energy Starting Events (HESE) neutrino events at PeV energies. In this work we extend our study to include all HESE neutrinos (which does not include IC 170922A) at or above a reconstructed energy of 100 TeV, but below 1 PeV. We study the X-ray and γ-ray data of all (∼200) 3LAC blazars that are positionally consistent with the neutrino events above 100 TeV to determine the maximum neutrino flux from these sources. This larger sample allows us to better constrain the scaling factor between the observed and maximum number of neutrino events. We find that when we consider a realistic neutrino spectrum and other factors, the number of neutrinos is in good agreement with the detected number of IceCube HESE events. We also show that there is no direct correlation between Fermi/LAT γ-ray flux and the IceCube neutrino flux and that the expected number of neutrinos is consistent with the non-detection of individual bright blazars.
Blazar jets are extreme environments, in which relativistic proton interactions with an ultraviolet photon field could give rise to photopion production. High-confidence associations of individual ...high-energy neutrinos with blazar flares could be achieved via spatially and temporally coincident detections. In 2017, the track-like, extremely high-energy neutrino event IC 170922A was found to coincide with increased γ-ray emission from the blazar TXS 0506+056, leading to the identification of the most promising neutrino point-source candidate so far. We calculate the expected number of neutrino events that can be detected with IceCube, based on a broadband parameterization of bright short-term blazar flares that were observed in the first 6.5 yr of Fermi/Large Area Telescope observations. We find that the integrated keV-to-GeV fluence of most individual blazar flares is far too small to yield a substantial Poisson probability for the detection of one or more neutrinos with IceCube. We show that the sample of potentially detectable high-energy neutrinos from individual blazar flares is rather small. We further show that the blazars 3C 279 and PKS 1510−089 dominate the all-sky neutrino prediction from bright and short-term blazar flares. In the end, we discuss strategies to search for more significant associations in future data unblindings of IceCube and KM3NeT.
The astrophysical sources of the extraterrestrial, very high-energy neutrinos detected by the IceCube collaboration remain to be identified. Gamma-ray (γ-ray) blazars have been predicted to yield a ...cumulative neutrino signal exceeding the atmospheric background above energies of 100 TeV, assuming that both the neutrinos and the γ-ray photons are produced by accelerated protons in relativistic jets. As the background spectrum falls steeply with increasing energy, the individual events with the clearest signature of being of extraterrestrial origin are those at petaelectronvolt energies. Inside the large positional-uncertainty fields of the first two petaelectronvolt neutrinos detected by IceCube, the integrated emission of the blazar population has a sufficiently high electromagnetic flux to explain the detected IceCube events, but fluences of individual objects are too low to make an unambiguous source association. Here, we report that a major outburst of the blazar PKS B1424-418 occurred in temporal and positional coincidence with a third petaelectronvolt-energy neutrino event (HESE-35) detected by IceCube. On the basis of an analysis of the full sample of γ-ray blazars in the HESE-35 field, we show that the long-term average γ-ray emission of blazars as a class is in agreement with both the measured all-sky flux of petaelectronvolt neutrinos and the spectral slope of the IceCube signal. The outburst of PKS B1424-418 provides an energy output high enough to explain the observed petaelectronvolt event, suggestive of a direct physical association.
High-z blazars (z ≥ 2.5) are the most powerful class of persistent γ-ray sources in the universe. These objects possess the highest jet powers and luminosities and have black hole masses often in ...excess of 109 solar masses. In addition, high-z blazars are important cosmological probes and serve as test objects for blazar evolution models. Due to their large distance, their high-energy emission typically peaks below the GeV range, which makes them difficult to study with Fermi/Large Area Telescope (LAT). Therefore, only the very brightest objects are detectable and, to date, only a small number of high-z blazars have been detected with Fermi/LAT. In this work, we studied the monthly binned long-term γ-ray emission of a sample of 176 radio and optically detected blazars that have not been reported as known γ-ray sources in the 3FGL catalog. To account for false-positive detections, we calculated monthly Fermi/LAT light curves for a large sample of blank sky positions and derived the number of random fluctuations that we expect at various test statistic (TS) levels. For a given blazar, a detection of TS > 9 in at least one month is expected ∼15% of the time. Although this rate is too high to secure detection of an individual source, half of our sample shows such single-month γ-ray activity, indicating a population of high-energy blazars at distances of up to z = 5.2. Multiple TS > 9 monthly detections are unlikely to happen by chance, and we have detected several individual new sources in this way, including the most distant γ-ray blazar, BZQ J1430+4204 (z = 4.72). Finally, two new γ-ray blazars at redshifts of z = 3.63 and z = 3.11 are unambiguously detected via very significant (TS > 25) flares in individual monthly time bins.
Context.
Hard X-ray properties of beamed active galactic nuclei have been published in the 105-month
Swift
/BAT catalog, but there have not been any studies carried out so far on a well-defined, ...radio-selected sample of low-peaked blazars in the hard X-ray band.
Aims.
Using the statistically complete MOJAVE-1 sample, we aim to determine the hard X-ray properties of radio-selected blazars, including the enigmatic group of gamma-ray-faint blazars. Additionally, we aim to determine the contribution of radio-selected low-peaked blazars to the diffuse cosmic X-ray background (CXB).
Methods.
We determined photon indices, fluxes, and luminosities in the range of 20 keV–100 keV of the X-ray spectra of blazars and other extragalactic jets from the MOJAVE-1 sample, derived from the 105-month
Swift
/BAT survey. We calculated log
N
–log
S
distributions and determined the luminosity functions.
Results.
The majority of the MOJAVE-1 blazars are found to be hard X-ray emitters albeit many at low count rates. The log
N
–log
S
distribution for the hard X-ray emission of radio-selected blazars is clearly non-Euclidean, in contrast to the radio flux density distribution. Approximately 0.2% of the CXB in the 20 keV–100 keV band can be resolved into MOJAVE-1 blazars.
Conclusions.
The peculiar log
N
–log
S
distribution disparity might be attributed to different evolutionary paths in the X-ray and radio bands, as tested by luminosity-function modeling. X-ray variability can be ruled out as the dominant contributor. Low-peaked blazars constitute an intrinsically different source population in terms of CXB contribution compared to similar studies of X-ray-selected blazars. The hard X-ray flux and spectral index can serve as a good proxy for the gamma-ray detection probability of individual sources. Future observations combining deep X-ray survey, for example, with eROSITA, and targeted gamma-ray observations with CTA can benefit strongly from the tight connection between these high-energy bands for the different blazar sub-classes.
ABSTRACT
By studying the variability of blazars across the electromagnetic spectrum, it is possible to resolve the underlying processes responsible for rapid flux increases, so-called flares. We ...report on an extremely bright X-ray flare in the high-peaked BL Lacertae object Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) that occurred simultaneously with enhanced γ-ray activity detected at very high energies by First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope on 2019 June 9. We triggered an observation with XMM–Newton, which observed the source quasi-continuously for 25 h. We find that the source was in the brightest state ever observed using XMM–Newton, reaching a flux of 2.8 × 10−9 $\mathrm{erg\, cm^{-2}\, s^{-1}}$ over an energy range of 0.3–10 keV. We perform a spectral and timing analysis to reveal the mechanisms of particle acceleration and to search for the shortest source-intrinsic time-scales. Mrk 421 exhibits the typical harder-when-brighter behaviour throughout the observation and shows a clock-wise hysteresis pattern, which indicates that the cooling dominates over the acceleration process. While the X-ray emission in different sub-bands is highly correlated, we can exclude large time lags as the computed z-transformed discrete correlation functions are consistent with a zero lag. We find rapid variability on time-scales of 1 ks for the 0.3–10 keV band and down to 300 s in the hard X-ray band (4–10 keV). Taking these time-scales into account, we discuss different models to explain the observed X-ray flare, and find that a plasmoid-dominated magnetic reconnection process is able to describe our observation best.
PMN J1603–4904 is a likely member of the rare class of γ-ray emitting young radio galaxies. Only one other source, PKS 1718–649, has been confirmed so far. These objects, which may transition into ...larger radio galaxies, are a stepping stone to understanding AGN evolution. It is not completely clear how these young galaxies, seen edge-on, can produce high-energy γ rays. PMN J1603–4904 has been detected by TANAMI Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations and has been followed-up with multiwavelength observations. A Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) γ-ray source has been associated with this young galaxy in the LAT catalogs. We have obtained Chandra observations of the source to consider the possibility of source confusion due to the relatively large positional uncertainty of Fermi-LAT. The goal was to investigate the possibility of other X-ray bright sources in the vicinity of PMN J1603–4904 that could be counterparts to the γ-ray emission. With Chandra/ACIS, we find no other sources in the uncertainty ellipse of Fermi-LAT data, which includes an improved localization analysis of eight years of data. We further study the X-ray fluxes and spectra. We conclude that PMN J1603–4904 is indeed the second confirmed γ-ray bright young radio galaxy.
The recently reported coincidences between high‐energy neutrino events and major blazar outbursts reinforce the relevance of lepto‐hadronic emission models for blazars. We study the influence of ...physical parameters on the neutrino output by modeling blazar spectral energy distributions self‐consistently assuming a relativistically propagating acceleration zone surrounded by a larger cooling zone. We find that the gross features of the spectral energy distribution can readily be explained with the model. A rigorous test requires time‐resolved measurements of blazar spectral energy distributions during an outburst and high‐statistics neutrino measurements to discriminate the leptonic and hadronic emission components.
By studying the variability of blazars across the electromagnetic spectrum, it is possible to resolve the underlying processes responsible for rapid flux increases, so-called flares. We report on an ...extremely bright X-ray flare in the high-peaked BL Lacertae object Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) that occurred simultaneously with enhanced γ-ray activity detected at very high energies by First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope on 2019 June 9. We triggered an observation with XMM–Newton, which observed the source quasi-continuously for 25 h. We find that the source was in the brightest state ever observed using XMM–Newton, reaching a flux of 2.8 × 10−9 erg cm-2s-1 over an energy range of 0.3–10 keV. We perform a spectral and timing analysis to reveal the mechanisms of particle acceleration and to search for the shortest source-intrinsic time-scales. Mrk 421 exhibits the typical harder-when-brighter behaviour throughout the observation and shows a clock-wise hysteresis pattern, which indicates that the cooling dominates over the acceleration process. While the X-ray emission in different sub-bands is highly correlated, we can exclude large time lags as the computed z-transformed discrete correlation functions are consistent with a zero lag. We find rapid variability on time-scales of 1 ks for the 0.3–10 keV band and down to 300 s in the hard X-ray band (4–10 keV). Taking these time-scales into account, we discuss different models to explain the observed X-ray flare, and find that a plasmoid-dominated magnetic reconnection process is able to describe our observation best.
The flux of very high-energy neutrinos produced in our Galaxy by the interaction of accelerated cosmic rays with the interstellar medium is not yet determined. The characterization of this flux will ...shed light on Galactic accelerator features, gas distribution morphology and Galactic cosmic ray transport. The central Galactic plane can be the site of an enhanced neutrino production, thus leading to anisotropies in the extraterrestrial neutrino signal as measured by the IceCube Collaboration. The ANTARES neutrino telescope, located in the Mediterranean Sea, offers a favorable view of this part of the sky, thereby allowing for a contribution to the determination of this flux. The expected diffuse Galactic neutrino emission can be obtained, linking a model of generation and propagation of cosmic rays with the morphology of the gas distribution in the Milky Way. In this paper, the so-called “gamma model” introduced recently to explain the high-energy gamma-ray diffuse Galactic emission is assumed as reference. The neutrino flux predicted by the “gamma model” depends on the assumed primary cosmic ray spectrum cutoff. Considering a radially dependent diffusion coefficient, this proposed scenario is able to account for the local cosmic ray measurements, as well as for the Galactic gamma-ray observations. Nine years of ANTARES data are used in this work to search for a possible Galactic contribution according to this scenario. All flavor neutrino interactions are considered. No excess of events is observed, and an upper limit is set on the neutrino flux of 1.1 (1.2) times the prediction of the “gamma model,” assuming the primary cosmic ray spectrum cutoff at 5 (50) PeV. This limit excludes the diffuse Galactic neutrino emission as the major cause of the “spectral anomaly” between the two hemispheres measured by IceCube.
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