Time-Integrated Neutrino Source Searches with 10 Years of IceCube Data

Neutrino Signal from a Population of Seyfert Galaxies

IceCube Collaboration has previously reported evidence for a neutrino signal from a Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068. This may suggest that all Seyfert galaxies emit neutrinos. To test this hypothesis, we identify the best candidate neutrino sources among nearby Seyfert galaxies, based on their hard x-ray properties. Only two other sources, NGC 4151 and NGC 3079 are expected to be detectable in 10 years of IceCube data. We find evidence (∼3σ) for a neutrino signal from both sources in a publicly available ten-year IceCube dataset. Though neither source alone is above the threshold for discovery, the chance coincidence probability to find the observed neutrino count excesses in the directions of the two out of two expected sources, in addition to the previously reported brightest source, is p<2.6×10^{-7}. This corresponds to a correlation between Seyfert galaxies and neutrino emission.

Leptonic Model for Neutrino Emission from Active Galactic Nuclei

It is often stated that the observation of high-energy neutrinos from an astrophysical source would constitute indisputable proof for the acceleration of hadronic cosmic rays. Here, we point out that there exists a purely leptonic mechanism to produce TeV-scale neutrinos in astrophysical environments. In particular, very high-energy synchrotron photons can scatter with x rays, exceeding the threshold for muon-antimuon pair production. When these muons decay, they produce neutrinos without any cosmic-ray protons or nuclei being involved. In order for this mechanism to be efficient, the source in question must produce very high-energy photons which interact in an environment that is dominated by keV-scale radiation. We find that such a source could potentially generate an observable neutrino flux through muon pair production for reasonable choices of physical parameters.

Observation of high-energy neutrinos from the Galactic plane

The origin of high-energy cosmic rays, atomic nuclei that continuously impact Earth's atmosphere, is unknown. Because of deflection by interstellar magnetic fields, cosmic rays produced within the Milky Way arrive at Earth from random directions. However, cosmic rays interact with matter near their sources and during propagation, which produces high-energy neutrinos. We searched for neutrino emission using machine learning techniques applied to 10 years of data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. By comparing diffuse emission models to a background-only hypothesis, we identified neutrino emission from the Galactic plane at the 4.5σ level of significance. The signal is consistent with diffuse emission of neutrinos from the Milky Way but could also arise from a population of unresolved point sources.

Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Emissions from Starforming and Starburst Galaxies

Experimental observations have demonstrated a strong correlation between the star formation rate and the gamma-ray lumosities of starforming and starburst galaxies (SFGs and SBGs). However, the real origin of these emissions is still under debate. In this contribution, we present several updates on their non-thermal radiations, revisiting both their point-like and cumulative (diffuse) emission properties. From the point-like side, we discuss the potential- ities of future neutrino (KM3NeT/ARCA, IceCube-gen2) telescopes to quanti- tively scrutinize their expected properties from different cosmic-ray transport models. From the diffuse perspective, we investigate a model based on a data- driven blending of spectral indexes, hence taking into account the changes in the properties of individual emitters. Strikingly, SFGs and SBGs can explain 25% (up to 40%) of the diffuse High-Energy Starting Events (HESE) data, without overshooting the gamma-ray limits regarding non-blazar sources.

KM3NeT/ARCA Sensitivity to Starburst Galaxies

In this work, the expectations of the full detector KM3NeT/ARCA are presented for particular starburst galaxies signals. For the point-like search approach, we considered the most promising local starburst galaxies to be observed as point-like neutrino excesses: NGC 1068, the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Circinus Galaxy. In both cases, we provide the energy-integrated sensitivity for two ARCA building blocks in the energy range 100 GeV − 10 PeV. In the diffuse scenario, both track and shower events were considered. For the point like analysis, only νµ charge current events were taken into account. Interestingly, ARCA has the potential to constrain the selected phenomenological scenarios, providing evidence of the link between star-forming processes and hadronic emissions.

Evidence for neutrino emission from the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068

A supermassive black hole, obscured by cosmic dust, powers the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068. Neutrinos, which rarely interact with matter, could provide information on the galaxy’s active core. We searched for neutrino emission from astrophysical objects using data recorded with the IceCube neutrino detector between 2011 and 2020. The positions of 110 known gamma-ray sources were individually searched for neutrino detections above atmospheric and cosmic backgrounds. We found that NGC 1068 has an excess of 79 − 20 + 22 neutrinos at tera–electron volt energies, with a global significance of 4.2σ, which we interpret as associated with the active galaxy. The flux of high-energy neutrinos that we measured from NGC 1068 is more than an order of magnitude higher than the upper limit on emissions of tera–electron volt gamma rays from this source.

Neutrinos unveil hidden galactic activities

An obscured supermassive black hole may be producing high-energy cosmic neutrinos

Candidate Tidal Disruption Event AT2019fdr Coincident with a High-Energy Neutrino

The origins of the high-energy cosmic neutrino flux remain largely unknown. Recently, one high-energy neutrino was associated with a tidal disruption event (TDE). Here we present AT2019fdr, an exceptionally luminous TDE candidate, coincident with another high-energy neutrino. Our observations, including a bright dust echo and soft late-time x-ray emission, further support a TDE origin of this flare. The probability of finding two such bright events by chance is just 0.034%. We evaluate several models for neutrino production and show that AT2019fdr is capable of producing the observed high-energy neutrino, reinforcing the case for TDEs as neutrino sources.

Science with Neutrino Telescopes in Spain

The primary scientific goal of neutrino telescopes is the detection and study of cosmic neutrino signals. However, the range of physics topics that these instruments can tackle is exceedingly wide and diverse. Neutrinos coming from outside the Earth, in association with other messengers, can contribute to clarify the question of the mechanisms that power the astrophysical accelerators which are known to exist from the observation of high-energy cosmic and gamma rays. Cosmic neutrinos can also be used to bring relevant information about the nature of dark matter, to study the intrinsic properties of neutrinos and to look for physics beyond the Standard Model. Likewise, atmospheric neutrinos can be used to study an ample variety of particle physics issues, such as neutrino oscillation phenomena, the determination of the neutrino mass ordering, non-standard neutrino interactions, neutrino decays and a diversity of other physics topics. In this article, we review a selected number of these topics, chosen on the basis of their scientific relevance and the involvement in their study of the Spanish physics community working in the KM3NeT and ANTARES neutrino telescopes.

Astrophysical Neutrinos and Blazars

We review and discuss recent results on the search for correlations between astrophysical neutrinos and γ-ray-detected sources, with many extragalactic studies reporting potential associations with different types of blazars. We investigate possible dependencies on blazar sub-classes by using the largest catalogues and all the multi-frequency data available. Through the study of similarities and differences in these sources we conclude that blazars come in two distinct flavours: LBLs and IHBLs (low-energy-peaked and intermediate-high-energy-peaked objects). These are distinguished by widely different properties such as the overall spectral energy distribution shape, jet speed, cosmological evolution, broad-band spectral variability, and optical polarisation properties. Although blazars of all types have been proposed as neutrino sources, evidence is accumulating in favour of IHBLs being the counterparts of astrophysical neutrinos. If this is indeed the case, we argue that the peculiar observational properties of IHBLs may be indirectly related to proton acceleration to very high energies.

Lorentz Symmetry and High-Energy Neutrino Astronomy

The search of the violation of Lorentz symmetry, or Lorentz violation (LV), is an active research field. The effects of LV are expected to be very small, and special systems are often used to search it. High-energy astrophysical neutrinos offer a unique system to search signatures of LV, due to the three factors: high neutrino energy, long propagation distance, and the presence of quantum mechanical interference. In this brief review, we introduce tests of LV and summarize existing searches of LV, using atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos.

High-Energy Alerts in the Multi-Messenger Era

The observation of electromagnetic counterparts to both high energy neutrinos and gravitational waves marked the beginning of a new era in astrophysics. The multi-messenger approach allows us to gain new insights into the most energetic events in the Universe such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovas, and black hole mergers. Real-time multi-messenger alerts are the key component of the observational strategies to unravel the transient signals expected from astrophysical sources. Focusing on the high-energy regime, we present a historical perspective of multi-messenger observations, the detectors and observational techniques used to study them, the status of the multi-messenger alerts and the most significant results, together with an overview of the future prospects in the field.

Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Signals from Accretion Disk Coronae of Active Galactic Nuclei

To explain the X-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei (AGN), non-thermal activity in AGN coronae such as pair cascade models has been extensively discussed in the past literature. Although X-ray and gamma-ray observations in the 1990s disfavored such pair cascade models, recent millimeter-wave observations of nearby Seyferts have established the existence of weak non-thermal coronal activity. In addition, the IceCube collaboration reported NGC 1068, a nearby Seyfert, as the hottest spot in their 10 year survey. These pieces of evidence are enough to investigate the non-thermal perspective of AGN coronae in depth again. This article summarizes our current observational understanding of AGN coronae and describes how AGN coronae generate high-energy particles. We also provide ways to test the AGN corona model with radio, X-ray, MeV gamma ray, and high-energy neutrino observations.

Hidden Cores of Active Galactic Nuclei as the Origin of Medium-Energy Neutrinos: Critical Tests with the MeV Gamma-Ray Connection

Mysteries about the origin of high-energy cosmic neutrinos have deepened by the recent IceCube measurement of a large diffuse flux in the 10-100 TeV range. Based on the standard disk-corona picture of active galactic nuclei (AGN), we present a phenomenological model enabling us to systematically calculate the spectral sequence of multimessenger emission from the AGN coronae. We show that protons in the coronal plasma can be stochastically accelerated up to PeV energies by plasma turbulence, and find that the model explains the large diffuse flux of medium-energy neutrinos if the cosmic rays carry only a few percent of the thermal energy. We find that the Bethe-Heitler process plays a crucial role in connecting these neutrinos and cascaded MeV gamma rays, and point out that the gamma-ray flux can even be enhanced by the reacceleration of secondary pairs. Critical tests of the model are given by its prediction that a significant fraction of the MeV gamma-ray background correlates with ∼10  TeV neutrinos, and nearby Seyfert galaxies including NGC 1068 are promising targets for IceCube, KM3Net, IceCube-Gen2, and future MeV gamma-ray telescopes.