On the Detection Potential of Blazar Flares for Current Neutrino Telescopes
Kreter M, Kadler M, Krauss F, Mannheim K, Buson S, Ojha R, Wilms J, Bottcher M (2020)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2020
Journal
Book Volume: 902
Journal Issue: 2
Abstract
Blazar jets are extreme environments, in which relativistic proton interactions with an ultraviolet photon field could give rise to photopion production. High-confidence associations of individual high-energy neutrinos with blazar flares could be achieved via spatially and temporally coincident detections. In 2017, the track-like, extremely high-energy neutrino event IC 170922A was found to coincide with increased gamma-ray emission from the blazar TXS 0506+056, leading to the identification of the most promising neutrino point-source candidate so far. We calculate the expected number of neutrino events that can be detected with IceCube, based on a broadband parameterization of bright short-term blazar flares that were observed in the first 6.5 yr of Fermi/Large Area Telescope observations. We find that the integrated keV-to-GeV fluence of most individual blazar flares is far too small to yield a substantial Poisson probability for the detection of one or more neutrinos with IceCube. We show that the sample of potentially detectable high-energy neutrinos from individual blazar flares is rather small. We further show that the blazars 3C 279 and PKS 1510-089 dominate the all-sky neutrino prediction from bright and short-term blazar flares. In the end, we discuss strategies to search for more significant associations in future data unblindings of IceCube and KM3NeT.
Authors with CRIS profile
Involved external institutions
Noordwes-Universiteit / North-West University
South Africa (ZA)
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Germany (DE)
Pennsylvania State University (Penn State)
United States (USA) (US)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
United States (USA) (US)
South Africa (ZA)
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Germany (DE)
Pennsylvania State University (Penn State)
United States (USA) (US)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
United States (USA) (US)
How to cite
APA:
Kreter, M., Kadler, M., Krauss, F., Mannheim, K., Buson, S., Ojha, R.,... Bottcher, M. (2020). On the Detection Potential of Blazar Flares for Current Neutrino Telescopes. Astrophysical Journal, 902(2). https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abb5b1
MLA:
Kreter, M., et al. "On the Detection Potential of Blazar Flares for Current Neutrino Telescopes." Astrophysical Journal 902.2 (2020).
BibTeX: Download