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

Kadler M, Krauss F, Mannheim K, Ojha R, Mueller C, Schulz R, Anton G, Baumgartner W, Beuchert T, Buson S, Carpenter B, Eberl T, Edwards PG, Glawion DE, Elsaesser D, Gehrels N, Graefe C, Gulyaev S, Hase H, Horiuchi S, James C, Kappes A, Kappes A, Katz U, Kreikenbohm A, Kreter M, Kreykenbohm I, Langejahn M, Leiter K, Litzinger E, Longo F, Lovell JEJ, Mcenery J, Natusch T, Phillips C, Ploetz C, Quick J, Ros E, Stecker FW, Steinbring T, Stevens J, Thompson DJ, Truestedt J, Tzioumis AK, Weston S, Wilms J, Zensus JA (2016)

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2016

Journal

Publisher: Nature Publishing Group

Book Volume: 12

Pages Range: 807-814

Journal Issue: 8

DOI: 10.1038/nphys3715

Abstract

The astrophysical sources of the extraterrestrial, very high-energy neutrinos detected by the IceCube collaboration remain to be identified. Gamma-ray (3-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 3-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. Here, 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 3-ray blazars in the HESE-35 field, we show that the long-term average 3-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. The outburst of PKS B1424-418 provides an energy output high enough to explain the observed petaelectronvolt event, suggestive of a direct physical association.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg Germany (DE) Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie / Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy Germany (DE) Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Australia (AU) Auckland University of Technology / Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau New Zealand (NZ) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) United States (USA) (US) Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (BKG) / Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy Germany (DE) Catholic University of America United States (USA) (US) Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) South Africa (ZA) National Institute for Nuclear Physics / Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) Italy (IT) University of Tasmania (UTAS) Australia (AU) Università degli Studi di Trieste Italy (IT)

How to cite

APA:

Kadler, M., Krauss, F., Mannheim, K., Ojha, R., Mueller, C., Schulz, R.,... Zensus, J.A. (2016). Coincidence of a high-fluence blazar outburst with a PeV-energy neutrino event. Nature Physics, 12(8), 807-814. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3715

MLA:

Kadler, Matthias, et al. "Coincidence of a high-fluence blazar outburst with a PeV-energy neutrino event." Nature Physics 12.8 (2016): 807-814.

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