2024/04/10 by Emma Kun, I. Bartos, Kun, Emma +13
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2404.06867
openalex publication_date 2024/04/10 · openalex created_date 2024/04/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The first high-energy neutrino source identified by IceCube was a blazar -- an active galactic nucleus driving a relativistic jet towards Earth. Jets driven by accreting black holes are commonly assumed to be needed for high-energy neutrino production. Recently, IceCube discovered neutrinos from Seyfert galaxies, which appears unrelated to jet activity. Here, we show that the observed luminosity ratios of neutrinos and hard X-rays from blazars TXS 0506+056 and GB6 J1542+6129 are consistent with neutrino production in a γ-obscured region near a central supermassive black hole, with the X-ray flux corresponding to reprocessed γ-ray emission with flux comparable to that of neutrinos. Similar neutrino - hard X-ray flux ratios are found for four Seyfert galaxies, NGC 1068, NGC 4151, CGCG 420-015 and NGC 3079, raising the possibility of a common neutrino production mechanism that may not involve a strong jet.