MURCHISON WIDEFIELD ARRAY LIMITS ON RADIO EMISSION FROM ANTARES NEUTRINO EVENTS

Journal Article · Fri Apr 01 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8205/820/2/L24· OSTI ID:22518563

Croft, S. ^[1]; Kaplan, D. L. ^[2]; Tingay, S. J. ^[3]; Murphy, T.; Rowlinson, A. ^[4]; Bell, M. E. ^[5]; Adrián-Martínez, S.; Ardid, M. ^[6]; Ageron, M.; Aubert, J. -J. ^[7]; Albert, A. ^[8]; André, M. ^[9]; Anton, G. ^[10]; Avgitas, T.; Baret, B. ^[11]; others, and

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1. University of California, Berkeley, Astronomy Department, 501 Campbell Hall #3411, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1900 East Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI 53211 (United States)
3. International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102 (Australia)
4. ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) (Australia)
5. CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility, P.O. Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710 (Australia)
6. Institut d’Investigació per a la Gestió Integrada de les Zones Costaneres (IGIC)—Universitat Politècnica de València. C/ Paranimf 1, E-46730 Gandia (Spain)
7. Aix Marseille Université, CNRS/IN2P3, CPPM UMR 7346, F-13288, Marseille (France)
8. GRPHE—Université de Haute Alsace—Institut universitaire de technologie de Colmar, 34 rue du Grillenbreit BP 50568-68008 Colmar (France)
9. Technical University of Catalonia, Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics, Rambla Exposició, E-08800 Vilanova i la Geltrú, Barcelona (Spain)
10. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Erwin-Rommel-Str. 1, D-91058 Erlangen (Germany)
11. APC, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, CEA/IRFU, Observatoire de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, F-75205 Paris (France)

We present a search, using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), for electromagnetic (EM) counterparts to two candidate high-energy neutrino events detected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope in 2013 November and 2014 March. These events were selected by ANTARES because they are consistent, within 0.°4, with the locations of galaxies within 20 Mpc of Earth. Using MWA archival data at frequencies between 118 and 182 MHz, taken ∼20 days prior to, at the same time as, and up to a year after the neutrino triggers, we look for transient or strongly variable radio sources that are consistent with the neutrino positions. No such counterparts are detected, and we set a 5σ upper limit for low-frequency radio emission of ∼10{sup 37} erg s{sup −1} for progenitors at 20 Mpc. If the neutrino sources are instead not in nearby galaxies, but originate in binary neutron star coalescences, our limits place the progenitors at z ≳ 0.2. While it is possible, due to the high background from atmospheric neutrinos, that neither event is astrophysical, the MWA observations are nevertheless among the first to follow up neutrino candidates in the radio, and illustrate the promise of wide-field instruments like MWA for detecting EM counterparts to such events.

• OSTI ID: 22518563
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 820; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS
BINARY STARS
COALESCENCE
COSMIC NEUTRINOS
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
GALAXIES
MHZ RANGE
NEUTRINO DETECTION
NEUTRON STARS
TELESCOPES
TRANSIENTS