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Title: Coincidence of a high-fluence blazar outburst with a PeV-energy neutrino event

Abstract

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. In this paper, 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 petaelectronvoltmore » neutrinos and the spectral slope of the IceCube signal. Finally, the outburst of PKS B1424–418 provides an energy output high enough to explain the observed petaelectronvolt event, suggestive of a direct physical association.« less

Authors:
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Publication Date:
Research Org.:
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Wurzburg (Germany)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); German Research Foundation (DFG); German Aerospace Center (DLR) (Germany); Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) (Germany); Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics (HAP) (Germany); Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO) (Spain); Generalitat Valenciana; European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) (Belgium)
Contributing Org.:
Fermi-LAT Collaboration
OSTI Identifier:
1355689
Grant/Contract Number:  
NNH09ZDA001N; NNH10ZDA001N; NNH12ZDA001N; NNH13ZDA001N; WI 1860-10/1; GRK 1147; 50OR1311/50OR1303/50OR1401; 05A11WEA; 05A14WE3; AYA2012-38491-C02-01; PROMETEOII/2014/057; MP0905
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 12; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group (NPG)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; High-energy astrophysics; Particle astrophysics

Citation Formats

Kadler, M., Krauß, F., Mannheim, K., Ojha, R., Müller, C., Schulz, R., Anton, G., Baumgartner, W., Beuchert, T., Buson, S., Carpenter, B., Eberl, T., Edwards, P.  G., Eisenacher Glawion, D., Elsässer, D., Gehrels, N., Gräfe, C., Gulyaev, S., Hase, H., Horiuchi, S., James, C.  W., Kappes, A., Kappes, A., Katz, U., Kreikenbohm, A., Kreter, M., Kreykenbohm, I., Langejahn, M., Leiter, K., Litzinger, E., Longo, F., Lovell, J.  E.  J., McEnery, J., Natusch, T., Phillips, C., Plötz, C., Quick, J., Ros, E., Stecker, F.  W., Steinbring, T., Stevens, J., Thompson, D.  J., Trüstedt, J., Tzioumis, A.  K., Weston, S., Wilms, J., and Zensus, J.  A. Coincidence of a high-fluence blazar outburst with a PeV-energy neutrino event. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1038/nphys3715.
Kadler, M., Krauß, F., Mannheim, K., Ojha, R., Müller, C., Schulz, R., Anton, G., Baumgartner, W., Beuchert, T., Buson, S., Carpenter, B., Eberl, T., Edwards, P.  G., Eisenacher Glawion, D., Elsässer, D., Gehrels, N., Gräfe, C., Gulyaev, S., Hase, H., Horiuchi, S., James, C.  W., Kappes, A., Kappes, A., Katz, U., Kreikenbohm, A., Kreter, M., Kreykenbohm, I., Langejahn, M., Leiter, K., Litzinger, E., Longo, F., Lovell, J.  E.  J., McEnery, J., Natusch, T., Phillips, C., Plötz, C., Quick, J., Ros, E., Stecker, F.  W., Steinbring, T., Stevens, J., Thompson, D.  J., Trüstedt, J., Tzioumis, A.  K., Weston, S., Wilms, J., & Zensus, J.  A. Coincidence of a high-fluence blazar outburst with a PeV-energy neutrino event. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3715
Kadler, M., Krauß, F., Mannheim, K., Ojha, R., Müller, C., Schulz, R., Anton, G., Baumgartner, W., Beuchert, T., Buson, S., Carpenter, B., Eberl, T., Edwards, P.  G., Eisenacher Glawion, D., Elsässer, D., Gehrels, N., Gräfe, C., Gulyaev, S., Hase, H., Horiuchi, S., James, C.  W., Kappes, A., Kappes, A., Katz, U., Kreikenbohm, A., Kreter, M., Kreykenbohm, I., Langejahn, M., Leiter, K., Litzinger, E., Longo, F., Lovell, J.  E.  J., McEnery, J., Natusch, T., Phillips, C., Plötz, C., Quick, J., Ros, E., Stecker, F.  W., Steinbring, T., Stevens, J., Thompson, D.  J., Trüstedt, J., Tzioumis, A.  K., Weston, S., Wilms, J., and Zensus, J.  A. 2016. "Coincidence of a high-fluence blazar outburst with a PeV-energy neutrino event". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3715. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1355689.
@article{osti_1355689,
title = {Coincidence of a high-fluence blazar outburst with a PeV-energy neutrino event},
author = {Kadler, M. and Krauß, F. and Mannheim, K. and Ojha, R. and Müller, C. and Schulz, R. and Anton, G. and Baumgartner, W. and Beuchert, T. and Buson, S. and Carpenter, B. and Eberl, T. and Edwards, P.  G. and Eisenacher Glawion, D. and Elsässer, D. and Gehrels, N. and Gräfe, C. and Gulyaev, S. and Hase, H. and Horiuchi, S. and James, C.  W. and Kappes, A. and Kappes, A. and Katz, U. and Kreikenbohm, A. and Kreter, M. and Kreykenbohm, I. and Langejahn, M. and Leiter, K. and Litzinger, E. and Longo, F. and Lovell, J.  E.  J. and McEnery, J. and Natusch, T. and Phillips, C. and Plötz, C. and Quick, J. and Ros, E. and Stecker, F.  W. and Steinbring, T. and Stevens, J. and Thompson, D.  J. and Trüstedt, J. and Tzioumis, A.  K. and Weston, S. and Wilms, J. and Zensus, J.  A.},
abstractNote = {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. In this paper, 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. Finally, the outburst of PKS B1424–418 provides an energy output high enough to explain the observed petaelectronvolt event, suggestive of a direct physical association.},
doi = {10.1038/nphys3715},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1355689}, journal = {Nature Physics},
issn = {1745-2473},
number = 8,
volume = 12,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Mon Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

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Investigation of Two Fermi -LAT Gamma-Ray Blazars Coincident with High-energy Neutrinos Detected by IceCube
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Eddington bias for cosmic neutrino sources
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Multiwavelength follow-up of a rare IceCube neutrino multiplet
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Neutrino Telescopes and High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos
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Patterns in the multi-wavelength behavior of candidate neutrino blazars
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Modelling the coincident observation of a high-energy neutrino and a bright blazar flare
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Multiwavelength follow-up of a rare IceCube neutrino multiplet
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Fermi non-detections of four X-ray jet sources and implications for the IC/CMB mechanism
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Blazar Flares as an Origin of High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos?
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