Search for GeV and X-Ray Flares Associated with the IceCube Track-like Neutrinos

Journal Article · Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/835/2/269· OSTI ID:22663928

Peng, Fang-Kun; Wang, Xiang-Yu ^[1]

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1. School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China)

Dozens of high-energy neutrinos have been detected by the IceCube neutrino telescope, but no clear association with any classes of astrophysical sources has been identified so far. Recently, Kadler et al. reported that a PeV cascade-like neutrino event occurred in positional and temporal coincidence with a giant gamma-ray flare of the blazar PKS B1424-418. Since IceCube track-like events have much better angular resolution, we here search for possible short-term gamma-ray flares that are associated with the IceCube track-like events with Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) observations. Among them, three track-like neutrino events occur within the field of view of Fermi -LAT at the time of the detection, so searching for the prompt gamma-ray emission associated with neutrinos is possible. Assuming a point source origin and a single power-law spectrum for the possible gamma-ray sources associated with neutrinos, a likelihood analysis of 0.2–100 GeV photons observed by Fermi -LAT on the timescales of ∼12 hr and one year are performed, and for the three special neutrinos, the analyses are also performed on the timescales of thousands of seconds before and after the neutrino detection. No significant GeV excesses over the background are found and upper limit fluxes at the 95% confidence level are obtained for different timescales. We also search for possible the Swift hard X-ray transient sources associated with the IceCube track-like neutrino events, but the search also yields null results. We discuss the implication of the non-detection of gamma-ray flares for the constraints on the neutrino source density.

• OSTI ID: 22663928
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 835, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COSMIC GAMMA SOURCES
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
DENSITY
EMISSION
GALAXIES
GAMMA RADIATION
GEV RANGE
HARD X RADIATION
ICECUBE NEUTRINO DETECTOR
LIMITING VALUES
NEUTRINO DETECTION
NEUTRINOS
PARTICLE TRACKS
PEV RANGE
PHOTONS
POINT SOURCES
RESOLUTION
SPECTRA
STELLAR FLARES
TELESCOPES