IceCube: Neutrinos from Active Galaxies

Francis Halzen

Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2305.07086

IceCube: Neutrinos from Active Galaxies

Francis Halzen

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The IceCube project transformed a cubic kilometer of transparent, natural Antarctic ice into a Cherenkov detector. It discovered neutrinos of TeV-PeV energy originating beyond our Galaxy with an energy flux that exceeds the one of high-energy gamma rays of extragalactic origin. Unlike at any other wavelength of light, extragalactic neutrinos outshine the nearby sources in our own Milky way. Updated measurements of the diffuse cosmic neutrino flux indicate that the high-energy gamma rays produced by the neutral pions that accompany cosmic neutrinos lose energy in the sources and are likely to be observed at MeV energy, or below. After the reanalysis of 10 years of archival data with an improved data selection and enhanced data analysis methods, the active galaxy NGC 1068 emerged as the hottest spot in the neutrino sky map. It is also the most significant source in a search at the positions of 110 preselected high-energy gamma-ray sources. Additionally, we find evidence for neutrino emission from the active galaxies PKS 1424+240 and TXS 0506+056. TXS 0506+056 had already been identified as a neutrino source in a multimessenger campaign triggered by a neutrino of 290 TeV energy and, by the independent observation of a neutrino burst in 2014 from this source in archival IceCube data. The observations point to active galaxies as the sources of cosmic neutrinos, and cosmic rays, with the gamma-ray-obscured dense cores near the supermassive black holes at their center as the sites where neutrinos originate, typically within $10\sim100$ Schwarzschild radii.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph.HE hep-ex

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Francis Halzen. 2023-05-11. IceCube: Neutrinos from Active Galaxies. https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.07086

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Probing Extragalactic Ultralight Axion Dark Matter with Decade-long Blazar Optical Polarimetry of 1ES 1959+650

Axions or axion-like particles (ALPs) are well-motivated dark matter (DM) candidates whose coupling to photons induces periodic oscillations in the polarization angle of astrophysical light. This work reports the first search for such a signature using ten years of optical polarimetric monitoring of the blazar 1ES~1959+650. No statistically significant periodicity is detected, determined by a Lomb-Scargle periodogram combined with Monte Carlo analysis. Assuming a central DM density in the host galaxy, this null result places tight upper limits on the ALP-photon coupling constant at $g_{aγ}<(5.8 \times 10^{-14}-1.8\times 10^{-10})\,\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$ across a broad ALP mass range of $m_a \sim (1.4\times10^{-23}-5.2\times10^{-20})\,\mathrm{eV}$. Our constraints surpass those from Very Long Baseline Array polarimetry of active galactic jets and from polarimetric data of the European Pulsar Timing Array, and are competitive with those from long-term Galactic pulsar timing of PSR J0437-4715 over the same ALP mass window. These results establish long-term blazar polarimetry as a competitive and complementary approach for probing axion-like DM on extragalactic scales.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Detection of a puzzling dual-superorbital hard X-ray modulation in the X-ray binary GX 301-2

The superorbital modulations (SMs) observed in wind-fed X-ray binaries remain a puzzling phenomenon in astrophysics. To investigate this behavior observationally, we analyzed the long-term hard X-ray light curve from the Swift/BAT 157-Month Hard X-ray Survey in X-ray binary GX 301-2. Using three timing analysis methods--the Lomb-Scargle periodogram, the weighted wavelet Ztransform, and Gaussian processes--we identify a rare dual-SM behavior in this source: the 115-day modulation exceeds the 5$σ$ global significance level, whereas the 65-day signal only marginally reaches the 4$σ$ level. Because the 115-day period is more consistent with the previously reported linear relation between orbital and superorbital periods, we interpret 115 days as the actual superorbital period, while the weaker and less stable 65-day period is its beat modulation with the orbital period.By assessing the applicability of different physical scenarios to our results, we suggest that this dual-SM behavior is most plausibly associated with corotating interaction regions (CIRs) in the stellar wind. This framework can also account for the observed linear orbital-superorbital relation, despite the unclear physical mechanism that sets the apparent ratio between the CIR and orbital periods across sources. Further long-term monitoring of this system, together with continued theoretical development of the CIR scenario, will be essential for clarifying the origin of wind-fed SMs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Gaussian Process Inference of Stochastic Magneto-Active Dynamics and Viscosity in Swift J1727.8-1613

Linking X-ray variability to the underlying magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) dynamics of black hole X-ray binaries remains challenging. We systematically investigate the stochastic and oscillatory variability of the black hole X-ray binary candidate Swift J1727.8$-$1613 during its 2023 outburst using Gaussian process (GP) regression applied to Insight-HXMT multi-band light curves. The variability is modeled with a physically motivated composite kernel comprising one stochastically driven damped simple harmonic oscillator (SHO) and two damped random walk (DRW) components. The SHO term robustly recovers quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) with frequencies $ν_0 \sim 0.07$--$5$ Hz, consistent with the fundamental Alfvén mode of a contracting magnetically confined disk--coronal cavity. The quality factor rises from $Q \sim 3$ to $Q \sim 10$, suggesting increasing coherence of the magnetic cavity. We also find an anti-correlation between QPO frequency and the short DRW damping timescale, supporting our proposed stochastic magneto-active dynamics scenario. Associating the short and long DRW timescales with the local turbulent turnover and thermal adjustment timescales, respectively, we infer an effective viscosity parameter of $α\approx 0.1$, supporting a strongly magnetized accretion flow. Strikingly, near the onset of relativistic jet ejection around MJD 60206, both relaxation timescales collapse toward the 0.1 s sampling limit, suggesting a rapid reorganization of the disk internal energy balance immediately before jet launching. Our results establish GP inference as a powerful route to connecting X-ray timing observables with the dynamical state of black hole accretion flows.

astro-ph.HE↗