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High-energy neutrino fluxes from AGN populations inferred from X-ray surveys

Jacobsen, IB; Wu, K; On, AYL; Saxton, CJ; (2015) High-energy neutrino fluxes from AGN populations inferred from X-ray surveys. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , 451 (4) pp. 3649-3663. 10.1093/mnras/stv1196. Green open access

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Abstract

High-energy neutrinos and photons are complementary messengers, probing violent astrophysical processes and structural evolution of the Universe. X-ray and neutrino observations jointly constrain conditions in active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets: their baryonic and leptonic contents, and particle production efficiency. Testing two standard neutrino production models for local source Cen A (Koers & Tinyakov and Becker & Biermann), we calculate the high-energy neutrino spectra of single AGN sources and derive the flux of high-energy neutrinos expected for the current epoch. Assuming that accretion determines both X-rays and particle creation, our parametric scaling relations predict neutrino yield in various AGN classes. We derive redshift-dependent number densities of each class, from Chandra and Swift/BAT X-ray luminosity functions (Silverman et al. and Ajello et al.). We integrate the neutrino spectrum expected from the cumulative history of AGN (correcting for cosmological and source effects, e.g. jet orientation and beaming). Both emission scenarios yield neutrino fluxes well above limits set by IceCube (by ∼4–106 × at 1 PeV, depending on the assumed jet models for neutrino production). This implies that: (i) Cen A might not be a typical neutrino source as commonly assumed; (ii) both neutrino production models overestimate the efficiency; (iii) neutrino luminosity scales with accretion power differently among AGN classes and hence does not follow X-ray luminosity universally; (iv) some AGN are neutrino-quiet (e.g. below a power threshold for neutrino production); (v) neutrino and X-ray emission have different duty cycles (e.g. jets alternate between baryonic and leptonic flows); or (vi) some combination of the above.

Type: Article
Title: High-energy neutrino fluxes from AGN populations inferred from X-ray surveys
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv1196
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1196
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: acceleration of particles, black hole physics, neutrinos, galaxies: active, galaxies: jets, X-rays: galaxies
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10056482
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