Even 100 years after the discovery of cosmic rays their origin remains a mystery. In recent years, TeV gamma-ray detectors have discovered and investigated many Galactic sources where particles are accelerated up to energies of 100 TeV. However, it has not been possible up to now to identify these sites unambiguously as sources of hadronic acceleration. The observation of cosmic high-energy neutrinos from these or other sources will be a smoking-gun evidence for the sites of the acceleration of cosmic rays.
Spectral and anisotropy properties of IceCube astrophysical neutrino signal reveal an evidence for a significant Galactic contribution to the neutrino flux in Southern hemisphere. We check if the Galactic contribution is detectable in the astrophysical muon neutrino flux observed from a low positive declinations region of the Northern sky. Estimating the Galactic neutrino flux in this part of the sky from gamma-ray and Southern sky neutrino data, we find that the Northern sky astrophysical muon neutrino signal shows an excess over the Galactic flux. This points to the presence of an additional…
Measuring the Astrophysical Galactic Plane Neutrino Flux and Searching for Galactic PeVatrons using the IceCube Multi-Flavor Astrophysical Neutrino Sample
Astrophysical sources of neutrinos detected by large-scale neutrino telescopes remain uncertain. While there exist statistically significant observational indications that a part of the neutrino flux is produced by blazars, numerous theoretical studies suggest also the presence of potential Galactic point sources. Some of them have been observed in gamma rays above 100 TeV. Moreover, cosmic-ray interactions in the Galactic disk guarantee a diffuse neutrino flux. However, these Galactic neutrinos have not been unambiguously detected so far. Here we examine whether such a Galactic component is p…
High-energy neutrinos present the ultimate signature for a cosmic ray accelerator. Galactic sources responsible for acceleration of cosmic ray up to the knee in cosmic ray spectrum will provide a guaranteed, albeit subdominant, contribution to the high-energy cosmic neutrino flux. In this review, we discuss the the prospects for identification of high-energy neutrinos from sources of the very high energy gamma ray emission in the Milky Way. We present the status of the search for point-like and extended emission from these sources, and describe how the results of these studies indicate that ne…
We calculate the neutrino yield from collisions of cosmic ray (CR) nuclei on gas using the event generator QGSJET-II. We present first the general characteristics and numerical results for the neutrino yield assuming power-law fluxes for the primary CR nuclei. Then we use three parameterisations for the Galactic CR flux to derive the neutrino yield for energies around and above the knee. The shape and the normalization of the resulting neutrino flux above $\sim 10^{14}$ eV depends on the composition of the Galactic CR flux employed, but is generally dominated by its proton component. The spect…
Galactic cosmic rays reach energies of at least several PeV, and their interactions should generate $γ$-rays and neutrinos from decay of secondary pions. Therefore, Galactic sources have a guaranteed contribution to the total high-energy cosmic neutrino flux observed by IceCube. Assuming that the highest energy $γ$-rays are pionic, promising neutrino source candidates have been identified based on their spectra, and observing them is likely over the lifetime of the IceCube experiment. Here, we present the search for Galactic sources of high-energy cosmic neutrinos by focusing on sources identi…
The last IceCube catalog of High Energy Starting Events (HESE) obtained with a livetime of 1347 days comprises 54 neutrino events equally-distributed between the three families with energies between 25 TeV and few PeVs. Considering the homogeneous flavors distribution (1:1:1) and the spectral features of these neutrinos the IceCube collaboration claims the astrophysical origin of these events with more than $5σ$. The spatial distribution of cited events does not show a clear correlation with known astrophysical accelerators leaving opened both the Galactic and the extra-Galactic origin interpr…
IceCube experiment has detected two neutrinos with energies beween 1-10 PeV. They might have originated from Galactic or extragalactic sources of cosmic rays. In the present work we consider hadronic interactions of the diffuse very high energy cosmic rays with the interstellar matter within our Galaxy to explain the PeV neutrino events detected in IceCube. We also expect PeV gamma ray events along with the PeV neutrino events if the observed PeV neutrinos were produced within our Galaxy in hadronic interactions. PeV gamma rays are unlikely to reach us from sources outside our Galaxy due to pa…
We present a search in IceCube data for neutrino emission from Galactic TeV gamma-ray sources detected by the HAWC gamma-ray observatory. HAWC serves as the excellent instrument to complement IceCube with its energy range extending to very high energies. Assuming that the highest energy photons originate from the decay of pions, rather than from accelerated leptons, the very high energy gamma-rays observed by HAWC are expected to be correlated with neutrinos. Using eight years of IceCube data, we report on two analyses that investigate a possible neutrino--gamma ray correlation. The first is a…
We explore possible physical origin of correlation between radio wave and very-high-energy neutrino emission in active galactic nuclei (AGN), suggested by recently reported evidence for correlation between neutrino arrival directions and positions of brightest radio-loud AGN. We show that such correlation is expected if both synchrotron emitting electrons and neutrinos originate from decays of charged pions produced in proton-proton interactions in parsec-scale relativistic jet propagating through circum-nuclear medium of the AGN.
Searches for spatial associations between high-energy neutrinos observed at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and known astronomical objects may hold the key to establishing the neutrinos' origins and the origins of hadronic cosmic rays. While extragalactic sources like the blazar TXS 0506+056 merit significant attention, Galactic sources may also represent part of the puzzle. Here, we explore whether open clusters and supernova remnants in the Milky Way contribute measurably to the IceCube track-like neutrino events above 200 TeV. By searching for positional coincidences with catalogs of known…
The IceCube evidence for cosmic neutrinos has inspired a large number of hypothesis on their origin, mainly due to the poor precision on the measurement of the direction of showering events. A North/South asymmetry in the present data set suggests the presence of a possible Galactic component. This could be originated either by single point-like sources or from an extended Galactic region. Expected fluxes derived from these hypotheses are presented. Some values have been constrained from the present available upper limits from the ANTARES neutrino telescope.
With the arrival of km**3 volume scale neutrino detectors the chances to detect the first astronomical sources of TeV neutrinos will be dramatically increased. While the theoretical estimates of the neutrino fluxes contain large uncertainties, we can formulate the conditions for the detectability of certain neutrino sources phenomenologically. In fact, since most galactic neutrino sources are transparent for TeV gamma-rays, their detectability implies a minimum flux of the accompanying gamma-rays. For a typical energy-dependence of detection areas of km**3 volume neutrino detectors, we obtain …
We show that the existence of a degenerate halo of sterile neutrinos with rest mass of 17.4 keV near the Galactic Center can account for both the excess 8.7 keV emission observed by the $Suzaku$ mission and the power needed ($10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$) to maintain the high temperature of the hot gas (8 keV) near the Galactic Center. The required decay rate and mixing angle of the sterile neutrinos are $Γ\ge 5 \times 10^{-20}$ s$^{-1}$ and $\sin^22 θ\sim 10^{-3}-10^{-4}$ respectively. These values are consistent with a low reheating temperature in the inflation model, and suggest the exciting possi…
We explore the detectability of the neutrino flux from the entire Galactic Plane or from a part of it with IceCube. We calculate the normalization and the spectral index of the neutrino power law spectrum from different regions of the Galactic plane, based on the observed spectral characteristics of the pion decay gamma-ray diffuse emission observed by the Fermi/LAT telescope in the energy band above 100 GeV. We compare the neutrino flux calculated in this way with the sensitivity of IceCube for the detection of extended sources. Assuming a binned extended source analysis method, we find that …
We investigate the neutrino - cosmic ray connection for sources in the Galaxy in terms of two observables: the shape of the energy spectrum and the distribution of arrival directions. We also study the associated gamma ray emission from these sources.
The hypothesis that high energy cosmic neutrinos are power law distributed is critically analyzed. We propose a model with two components that explains better the observations. The extragalactic component of the high energy neutrino flux has a canonical $E_ν^{-2}$ spectrum while the galactic component has a $E_ν^{-2.7}$ spectrum; both of them are significant. This model has several implications, that can be tested by IceCube and ANTARES in the next years. Moreover, the existence of a diffuse component close to the Galactic plane and that yields (20-30)\% of IceCube's events, is interesting for…
The standard model of particle physics assumes that neutrinos are massless, although adding non-zeros is required by the experimentally established phenomenon of neutrino oscillations requires neutrinos to have non-zero mass. Sterile neutrinos (or right-handed neutrinos) are a good warm dark matter candidate. We find that the excess of the intensity in the 8.7 keV line (at the energy of the FeXXVI Ly$γ$ line) in the spectrum of the Galactic center observed by the Suzaku X-ray mission cannot be explained by standard ionization and recombination processes. We suggest that the origin of this exce…
This Astro2020 white paper advocates for a multi-messenger approach that combines high-energy neutrino and broad multi-wavelength electromagnetic observations to study AGN during the coming decade. The unique capabilities of these joint observations promise to solve several long-standing issues in our understanding of AGN as powerful cosmic accelerators.
The hypothesis of a PeVatron in the Galactic Center, emerged with the recent γ-ray measurements of H.E.S.S., motivates the search for neutrinos from this source. The effect of γ-ray absorption is studied: at the energies currently probed, the known background radiation fields lead to small effects, whereas it is not possible to exclude large effects due to new IR radiation fields near the very Center. Precise upper limits on neutrino fluxes are derived and the underlying hypotheses are discussed. The expected number of events for ANTARES, IceCube and KM3NeT, based on the H.E.S.S. measurements,…
We present the first observational limits to the ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrino flux from the Galactic Center, and from Centaurus A which is the nearest active galactic nucleus (AGN). These results are based on our "Lunar UHE Neutrino Astrophysics using the Square Kilometer Array" (LUNASKA) project experiments at the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). We also derive limits for the previous experiments and compare these limits with expectations for acceleration and super-heavy dark matter models of the origin of UHE cosmic rays.
Very recently, diffuse gamma rays with $0.1\,{\rm PeV}<E_γ<1\,\rm PeV$ have been discovered from the Galactic disk by the Tibet air shower array and muon detector array (Tibet AS+MD array). While the measured sub-PeV flux may be compatible with the hadronic origin in the conventional Galactic cosmic ray propagation model, we find that it is in possible tension with the non-detection of Galactic neutrino emissions by the IceCube neutrino telescope. We further find that the presence of an extra cosmic ray component of relatively hard spectrum, which is probably related to the Cygnus Cocoon regio…
Arrival directions of 40 neutrino events with energies >~100 TeV, observed by the IceCube experiment, are studied. Their distribution in the Galactic latitude and in the angular distance to the Galactic Center allow to search for the Milky-Way disk and halo-related components, respectively. No statistically significant evidence for the disk component is found, though even 100% disk origin of the flux is allowed at the 90% confidence level. Contrary, the Galactic Center-Anticenter dipole anisotropy, specific for dark-matter decays (annihilation) or for interactions of cosmic rays with the exten…
The IceCube evidence for cosmic neutrinos in the high-energy starting events (HESE) sample has inspired a large number of hypothesis on their origin, mainly due to the poor precision on the measurement of the direction of showering events. The fact that most of HESE are downward going suggests a possible Galactic component. This could be originated either by a single point-like source or to a directional excess from an extended Galactic region. These hypotheses are reviewed and constrained, using the present available upper limits from the ANTARES neutrino telescope. ANTARES detects $ν_μ$ from…
Recent astronomical observations reveal that Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are sources of high-energy radiation. For example, the Fermi-LAT and Hess telescopes have detected gamma-ray emissions from the cores of several types of AGN's. Even more, the Pierre Auger observatory has found a correlation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray events with the position of Active Galactic Nuclei, such as Centaurus A. In this way, according to particle physics, a flux of high-energy neutrinos should be expected from the interactions of cosmic and gamma-rays with the ambient matter and radiation at the source. I…
The IceCube (IC) collaboration recently reported the detection of TeV-PeV extraterrestrial neutrinos whose origin is yet unknown. By the photon-neutrino connection in $pp$ and $pγ$ interactions, we use the \fermi-LAT observations to constrain the origin of the IC detected neutrinos. We find that Galactic origins, i.e., the diffuse Galactic neutrinos due to cosmic ray (CR) propagation in the Milky Way, and the neutrinos from the Galactic point sources, may not produce the IC neutrino flux, thus these neutrinos should be of extragalactic origin. Moreover, the extragalactic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs…
The high-energy radiation from short period binaries containing a massive star with a compact relativistic companion was detected from radio to TeV gamma rays. We show here that PeV regime protons can be efficiently accelerated in the regions of collision of relativistic outflows of a compact object with stellar winds in these systems. The accelerated proton spectra in the presented Monte Carlo model have an upturn in the PeV regime and can provide very hard spectra of sub-PeV photons and neutrinos by photo-meson processes in the stellar radiation field. Recent report of a possible sub-PeV gam…
A Galactic cosmic-ray transport model featuring non-homogeneous transport has been developed over the latest years. This setup is aimed at reproducing gamma-ray observations in different regions of the Galaxy (with particular focus on the progressive hardening of the hadronic spectrum in the inner Galaxy) and was shown to be compatible with the very-high-energy gamma-ray diffuse emission recently detected up to PeV energies. In this work, we extend the results previously presented to test the reliability of that model throughout the whole sky. To this aim, we compare our predictions with detai…
I discuss the feasibility of a conceptual space-based neutrino detector that utilizes the Ice Giants as Targets for Galactic Neutrinos. The purpose of this research stems from the concept of wanting to find a new method of observing the Galactic Core (GC) of the Milky Way and the Supermassive black hole, Sag A*. Observations of the GC have been made in every accessible wavelength except for the regions of space that are too dense for photons to probe. In these regions, we may instead use neutrinos. Neutrinos from the Active Galactic Nucleus are emitted at extreme energies, 10 GeV to EeV scales…
Recent IceCube results suggest that the first detection of very high energy astrophysical neutrinos have been accomplished. We consider these results at face value in a Galactic origin context. Emission scenarios from both the Fermi bubble and broader halo region are considered. We motivate that such an intensity of diffuse neutrino emission could be Galactic in origin if it is produced from an outflow into the halo region. This scenario requires cosmic ray transport within the outflow environment to be different to that inferred locally within the disk and that activity in the central part of…
The TeV/PeV neutrino emission from our Galaxy is related to the distribution of cosmic-ray accelerators, their maximal energy of injection as well as the propagation of injected particles and their interaction with molecular gas. In the last years Interesting upper limits on the diffuse hadronic emission from the whole Galaxy, massive molecular clouds and Fermi Bubbles were set by the IceCube and ANTARES as well as HAWC and Fermi-LAT observations. On the other hand no evidence of Galactic point-like excess has been observed up to now by high-energy neutrino telescopes. This result can be relat…
The Tibet ASgamma experiment just reported their measurement of sub-PeV diffuse gamma ray emission from the Galactic disk, with the highest energy up to 957 TeV. These gamma-rays are most likely the hadronic origin by cosmic ray interaction with interstellar gas in the Galaxy. This measurement provides direct evidence to the hypothesis that the Galactic cosmic rays can be accelerated beyond PeV energies. In this work, we try to explain the sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray spectrum within cosmic rays diffusive propagation model. We find there is a tension between the sub-PeV diffuse gamma rays and the…
The ANTARES deep sea neutrino telescope has acquired over four years of high quality data. This data has been used to measure the oscillation parameters of atmospheric neutrinos and also to search for neutrinos of a non-terrestrial origin. Competitive upper limits on the fluxes of neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the Sun, a variety of Galactic and extra-galactic sources, both steady and transient, are presented.
The H.E.S.S. Galactic Plane Survey has detected very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission from 78 sources in the Milky Way. These sources belong to different object classes (pulsar wind nebulae, supernova remnants or binary systems) and some of these sources remain unidentified. The gamma-ray emission of these objects may be of leptonic or hadronic origin and gamma-ray observations alone cannot distinguish between these two scenarios. The detection of neutrino emission would provide evidence for a hadronic scenario in these objects. Based on the observed gamma-ray spectra we predict the neutri…
It has been suggested that whether a star explodes or not, and what kind of explosion properties it shows, is strongly dependent on the progenitor's core structure. We present the results from 101 axisymmetric core-collapse supernova simulations performed with progenitors spanning initial masses in the range from 10.8 to 75 solar masses, and focus on their connections to the compactness of the progenitor's core. Our simulations confirm a correlation between the neutrinos emitted during the accretion phase and the progenitor's compactness. We suggest that the ratio of observed neutrino events d…
We study the propagation of cosmic rays generated by sources residing inside superbubbles. We show that the enhanced magnetic field in the bubble wall leads to an increase of the interior cosmic ray density. Because of the large matter density in the wall, the probability for cosmic ray interactions on gas peaks there. As a result, the walls of superbubbles located near young cosmic ray sources emit efficiently neutrinos. We apply this scenario to the Loop~I and Local Superbubble: These bubbles are sufficiently near such that cosmic rays from a young source as Vela interacting in the bubble wa…
We present a bottom-up calculation of the flux of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and high-energy neutrinos produced by powerful jets of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). By propagating test particles in 3D relativistic magnetohydrodynamic jet simulations, including a Monte Carlo treatment of sub-grid pitch-angle scattering and attenuation losses due to realistic photon fields, we study the spectrum and composition of the accelerated UHECRs and estimate the amount of neutrinos produced in such sources. We find that UHECRs may not be significantly affected by photodisintegration in AGN jets…
The center of the our Galaxy is a region where very energetic phenomena take place. In particular powerful cosmic ray sources can be located in that region. The cosmic rays accelerated in these sources may interact with ambient protons and/or low energy photons producing gamma rays and neutrinos. The observation of these two types of secondary particles can be very useful for the identification of the cosmic ray sources and for the understanding of the physical processes occurring during acceleration. Motivated by the excess in the neutrino spectrum recently reported by the IceCube Collaborati…
Search for neutrino signals correlated with LHAASO diffuse Galactic emission
Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交大李政道研究所）；Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (MoE), Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology（粒子天体物理与宇宙学教育部重点实验室，上海粒子物理与宇宙学重点实验室）；Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所）；TIANFU Cosmic Ray Research Center（天府宇宙线研究中心）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）
We overview high-energy neutrinos from galactic sources, transparent to their gamma-ray emission. We focus on young supernova remnants and in particular on RX J1713.7-3946, discussing expectations and upper bounds. We also consider the possibility to detect neutrinos from other strong galactic gamma-ray sources as Vela Junior, the Cygnus Region and the recently discovered Fermi Bubbles. We quantify the impact of the recent hint for a large value of $θ_{13}$ on high-energy neutrino oscillations.
