The detection of an astrophysical flux of neutrinos in the TeV-PeV energy range by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has opened new possibilities for the study of extreme cosmic accelerators. The ...apparent isotropy of the neutrino arrival directions favors an extragalactic origin for this flux, potentially created by a large population of distant sources. Recent evidence for the detection of neutrino emission from extragalactic sources includes the active galaxies TXS 0506+056 and NGC 1068. We here review the current status of the search for the sources of the high-energy neutrino flux, concentrating on its extragalactic contribution. We discuss the implications of these observations for multimessenger studies of cosmic sources and present an outlook for how additional observations by current and future instruments will help address fundamental questions in the emerging field of high-energy neutrino astronomy.
The IceCube report of a excess of 13 5 neutrino events in the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+056 in 2014-2015 and the 2017 detection of a high-energy neutrino event, IceCube-170922A, during a ...gamma-ray flare from the same blazar, have revived the interest in scenarios for neutrino production in blazars. We perform comprehensive analyses on the long-term electromagnetic emission of TXS 0506+056 using optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray data from the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image, and the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We also perform numerical modeling of the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) in four epochs prior to 2017 with contemporaneous gamma-ray and lower-energy (optical and/or X-ray) data. We find that the multi-epoch SEDs are consistent with a hybrid leptonic scenario, where the gamma-rays are produced in the blazar zone via external inverse Compton scattering of accelerated electrons, and high-energy neutrinos are produced via the photomeson production process of co-accelerated protons. The multi-epoch SEDs can be satisfactorily explained with the same jet parameters and variable external photon density and electron luminosity. Using the maximal neutrino flux derived for each epoch, we put an upper limit of ∼0.4-2 on the muon neutrino number in 10 years of IceCube observations. Our results are consistent with the IceCube-170922A detection, which can be explained as an upper fluctuation from the average neutrino rate expected from the source, but in strong tension with the 2014-2015 neutrino flare.
Abstract
The Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) is a proposed gamma-ray observatory based on the ground-level particle detection technique, with close to 100% duty cycle and an order of ...steradian field of view. SWGO will be located in South America at a latitude between 10 and 30 degrees South and an altitude of 4.4 km or higher, covering an energy range from hundreds of GeV to PeV. The SWGO Site Working Group is gathering, among other information, relevant environmental data to characterize the proposed sites using the AEROSITE instrument. Also atmospheric transparency is monitored to allow for potential enhancement of SWGO with a Cherenkov telescope. This contribution describes our activities in the study of the atmospheric conditions of selected candidate sites using instruments located onsite or installed at nearby stations.
ABSTRACT
High-energy neutrinos are a promising tool for identifying astrophysical sources of high and ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Prospects of detecting neutrinos at high energies (≳TeV) ...from blazars have been boosted after the recent association of IceCube-170922A and TXS 0506+056. We investigate the high-energy neutrino, IceCube-190331A, a high-energy starting event (HESE) with a high likelihood of being astrophysical in origin. We initiated a Swift/XRT and UVOT tiling mosaic of the neutrino localization and followed up with ATCA radio observations, compiling a multiwavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) for the most likely source of origin. NuSTAR observations of the neutrino location and a nearby X-ray source were also performed. We find two promising counterpart in the 90 per cent confidence localization region and identify the brightest as the most likely counterpart. However, no Fermi/LAT γ-ray source and no prompt Swift/BAT source is consistent with the neutrino event. At this point, it is unclear whether any of the counterparts produced IceCube-190331A. We note that the Helix Nebula is also consistent with the position of the neutrino event and we calculate that associated particle acceleration processes cannot produce the required energies to generate a high-energy HESE neutrino.
The standard method for estimating the statistical significance of a gamma-ray source detection is that introduced by Li & Ma (1983), Eq. (17). In observing sources with time-dependent light curves, ...one can improve on this method by including approximate a priori knowledge of the source temporal behavior. A maximum-likelihood-based approach is suggested that provides an improvement in sensitivity with respect to the Li & Ma technique. The method is demonstrated by applying it to Monte Carlo simulations of gamma-ray burst observations with parameters chosen to reproduce the performance of current generation imaging air Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). One particular example of a simulated burst observation near the current-generation IACT detection threshold results in a sensitivity improvement of approximately 25% . It is also shown that this method can work with highly variable light curves without much computational complexity, and that the sensitivity gain is robust against uncertainties in the a priori-defined light curve.
High-energy neutrinos originating in astrophysical sources should be accompanied by gamma-rays at production. Depending on the properties of the emission environment and the distance of the source to ...the Earth, these gamma-rays may be observed directly, or through the detection of lower energy photons that result from interactions with the intervening radiation fields. In this work, we present an automated tool that aims at using data from the Fermi-Large Area Telescope to identify multiwavelength counterparts to astrophysical neutrino events. The main goal of this tool is to enable prompt follow-up observations with ground-based and space-based observatories in order to help pinpoint the neutrino source.
Neutron stars with very strong magnetic fields are known as magnetars. There are multiple theories that predict magnetars may be able to emit high-energy (HE) neutrinos through hadronic processes by ...accelerating cosmic rays to high energies. A subclass of magnetars known as soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) can produce giant flares that can result in the production of HE neutrinos. Some magnetars also exhibit bursting activity during which they may emit HE neutrinos. Here we describe our time-integrated search for neutrino emission from magnetars listed in the McGill Online Magnetar Catalog and three newly discovered magnetars SGR 1830-0645, Swift J1555.5-5402, and NGC 253. SGR 1830-0645 and Swift J1555.2-5402 were discovered in 2020 and 2021 respectively by SWIFT after emitting short bursts. A very bright short gamma-ray burst that is believed to be a magnetar giant flare has been localized to NGC 253. We use 14 years of well-reconstructed muon-neutrino candidate events collected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory to look for significant clustering in the direction of magnetars.
The recent discoveries of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos and gravitational waves have opened new windows of exploration to the Universe. Combining neutrino observations with measurements of ...electromagnetic radiation and cosmic rays promises to unveil the sources responsible for the neutrino emission and to help solve long-standing problems in astrophysics such as the origin of cosmic rays. Neutrino observations may also help localize gravitational-wave sources, and enable the study of their astrophysical progenitors. In this work we review the current status and future plans for multi-messenger searches of neutrino sources.
The detection of an astrophysical flux of neutrinos in the TeV-PeV energy range by the IceCube observatory has opened new possibilities for the study of extreme cosmic accelerators. The apparent ...isotropy of the neutrino arrival directions favors an extragalactic origin for this flux, potentially created by a large population of distant sources. Recent evidence for the detection of neutrino emission from extragalactic sources include the active galaxies TXS 0506+056 and NGC 1068. We here review the current status of the search for the sources of the high-energy neutrino flux, concentrating on its extragalactic contribution. We discuss the implications of these observations for multimessenger studies of cosmic sources and present an outlook for how additional observations by current and future instruments will help address fundamental questions in the emerging field of high-energy neutrino astronomy.
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