Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQ) are the most powerful blazars in the gamma-ray band. Although they are supposed to be good candidates in producing high energy neutrinos, no secure detection of FSRQs has been obtained up to now, except for a possible case of PKS B1424-418. In this work, we compute the expected flux of high energy neutrinos from FSRQs using standard assumptions for the properties of the radiation fields filling the regions surrounding the central supermassive black hole. We obtain as a result that high energy neutrinos are naturally expected from FSRQs in the sub-EeV-EeV energy range and not at PeV energies. This justifies the non-observation of neutrinos from FSRQs with the present technology, since only neutrinos below 10 PeV have been observed. We found that for a non-negligible range of the parameters the cumulative flux from FSRQs is comparable to or even exceeds the expected cosmogenic neutrino flux. This result is intriguing and highlights the importance to disentangle these point-source emissions from the diffuse cosmogenic background.
We demonstrate that a population of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) can describe the observed spectrum of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) at and above the ankle, and that the dominant contribution comes from low-luminosity BL Lacs. An additional, subdominant contribution from high-luminosity AGN is needed to improve the description of the composition observables, leading to a substantial neutrino flux that peaks at EeV energies. We also find that different properties for the low- and high-luminosity AGN populations are required; a possibly similar baryonic loading can already be excluded f…
Blazars are potential candidates of cosmic-ray acceleration up to ultrahigh energies ($E\gtrsim10^{18}$ eV). For an efficient cosmic-ray injection from blazars, $pγ$ collisions with the extragalactic background light (EBL) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) can produce neutrino spectrum peaks near PeV and EeV energies, respectively. We analyze the contribution of these neutrinos to the diffuse background measured by the IceCube neutrino observatory. The fraction of neutrino luminosity originating from individual redshift ranges is calculated using the distribution of BL Lacs and FSRQs provi…
Resonant W and Z Boson Production in FSRQ Jets: Implications for Diffuse Neutrino Fluxes
Korea Space Weather Center, Korea AeroSpace Administration（韩国空间天气中心，韩国航空航天局）；Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute（韩国天体与空间科学研究所）；North-Caucasus Center for Mathematical Research, North-Caucasus Federal University（北高加索数学研究中心，北高加索联邦大学）
We present a range of unbroken power-law fits to the astrophysical-neutrino spectrum consistent with the most recent published IceCube data at the 68\% confidence level. Assuming that the neutrinos originate in decays of pi mesons, we estimate accompanying gamma-ray fluxes for various distributions of sources, taking propagation effects into account. We then briefly discuss existing experimental results constraining PeV to EeV diffuse gamma-ray flux and their systematic uncertainties. Several scenarios are marginally consistent both with the KASKADE and CASA-MIA upper limits at (10^15-10^16) e…
Neutrinos with energies in the PeV to EeV range produce upgoing extensive air showers when they interact underground close enough to the surface of the Earth. We study the possibility for detection of such showers with a system of very wide field-of-view imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, named CHANT for CHerenkov from Astrophysical Neutrinos Telescope, pointing down to a strip below the Earth's horizon from space. We find that CHANT provides sufficient sensitivity for the study of the astrophysical neutrino flux in a wide energy range, from 10 PeV to 10 EeV. A space-based CHANT system …
The possibility of detecting Ultra-high energy (UHE from now on) neutrinos due to superheavy dark matter are considered by the neutrinos interaction with the nuclei in the air in the present paper. To reject other standard model particles, UHE neutrinos, from superheavy dark matter and astrophysical sources, skimming the Earth are detected at JEM-EUSO. Then the numbers of UHE neutrinos detected by JEM-EUSO are evaluated at different energies (1 EeV < E < 1 ZeV) in 5 years. If the energy thresholds are taken to be 100 EeV, the astrophysical neutrino contamination could be negligible in this det…
We study if the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux can come from blazar jets -- a subclass of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) -- while it, at the same time, respects the blazar stacking limit based on source catalogs and is consistent with the observation from TXS 0506+056. We compute the neutrino flux from resolved and unresolved sources using an averaged, empirical relationship between electromagnetic spectrum and luminosity, known as the {\em blazar sequence}, for two populations of blazars (BL Lacs and FSRQs). Using a source model with realistic neutrino flux computations, we demonstrate th…
We present a combined fit of a simple astrophysical model of UHECR sources to both the energy spectrum and mass composition data measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The fit has been performed for energies above 5 EeV, i.e. the region of the all-particle spectrum above the so-called "ankle" feature. The astrophysical model we adopted consists of identical sources uniformly distributed in a comoving volume, where nuclei are accelerated with a rigidity-dependent mechanism. The fit results suggest sources characterized by relatively low maximum injection energies and hard spectral indices. T…
Cosmic neutrino events detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory with energy $\gtrsim 30$ TeV have poor angular resolutions to reveal their origin. Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), with better angular resolutions at $>60$ EeV energies, can be used to check if the same astrophysical sources are responsible for producing both neutrinos and UHECRs. We test this hypothesis, with statistical methods which emphasize invariant quantities, by using data from the Pierre Auger Observatory, Telescope Array and past cosmic-ray experiments. We find that the arrival directions of the cosmic neutrin…
We have built regions in a Sky map where it should be expected the arrival of 120 EeV ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECR) directionally correlated with the latest astrophysical neutrino tracks observed at IceCube, which are taken as point sources. In order to calculate these arrival directions we have considered contributions to the cosmic rays deflections originated by the galactic and the extragalactic magnetic field, and a UHECR composition compatible with the current expectations. We have used the Jansson-Farrar JF12 model for the Galactic magnetic field and an extragalactic magnetic fiel…
KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande were multi-detector installations to measure individual air showers of cosmic rays at ultra-high energy. Based on data sets measured by KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande, 90% C.L. upper limits to the flux of gamma-rays in the primary cosmic ray flux are determined in an energy range of ${10}^{14} - {10}^{18}$ eV. The analysis is performed by selecting air showers with a low muon content as expected for gamma-ray-induced showers compared to air showers induced by energetic nuclei. The best upper limit of the fraction of gamma-rays to the total cosmic ray flux is obtained at …
We present the results of a search for clustering among the highest energy events detected by the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 August 2007. We analyse the autocorrelation function, in which the number of pairs with angular separation within a given angle is compared with the expectation from an isotropic distribution. Performing a scan in energy above 30 EeV and in angles smaller than 30 degrees, the most significant excess of pairs appears for E > 57 EeV and for a wide range of separation angles, between 9 and 22 degrees. An excess like this h…
One of the mysteries of very-high-energy (VHE) astrophysics is the observation of flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) above about 30 GeV, because at those energies their broad line region should prevent photons produced by the central engine to escape. Although a few astrophysical explanations have been put forward, they are totally ad hoc. We show that a natural explanation emerges within the conventional models of FSRQs provided that photon-ALP oscillations take place inside the source for the model parameters within an allowed range.
We review the importance of Centaurus A in high energy astrophysics as a nearby object with many of the properties expected of a major source of very high energy cosmic rays and gamma-rays. We examine observational techniques and the results so far obtained in the energy range from 200 GeV to above 100 EeV and attempt to fit those data with expectations of Centaurus A as an astrophysical source from VHE to UHE energies.
Flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) can suffer strong absorption above E = 25/(1+z) GeV, due to gamma-gamma interaction if the emitting region is at sub-parsec scale from the super-massive black hole (SMBH). Gamma-ray flares from these astrophysical sources can investigate the location of the high-energy emission region and the physics of the radiating processes. We present a remarkable gamma-ray flaring activity from FSRQ PKS 2023-07 during April 2016, as detected by both AGILE and Fermi satellites. An intensive multi-wavelength campaign, triggered by Swift, covered the entire duration of the…
We present results of elaborate four-dimensional simulations of the propagation of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR), which are based on a realistic astrophysical scenario. The distribution of the arrival directions of the UHECR is found to have a pronounced dipolar anisotropy and rather weak higher-order contributions to the angular power spectrum. This finding agrees well with the recent observation of a dipolar anisotropy for UHECR with arrival energies above 8 EeV by the Pierre Auger Observatory and constitutes an important prediction for other energy ranges and higher-order angular co…
On the astrophysical origin of cosmic rays: Constraining the Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Ray Horizon through Nearby Galaxy Distributions
Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental (IATE), CONICET, Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba（理论与实验天体物理研究所（IATE），阿根廷国家科学研究委员会，科尔多瓦天文台）；Gabinete de Astronomía Extragaláctica, Departamento de Geofísica, Astronomía y Física, CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de San Juan（河外天文研究室，地球物理学、天文学与物理系，阿根廷国家科学研究委员会，理学院，圣胡安国立大学）；Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba, UNC（科尔多瓦天文台，科尔多瓦大学）
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, located at the geographic South Pole, is a Cherenkov detector that continuously monitors a cubic kilometer of instrumented glacial ice for neutrino interactions in the sub-TeV to EeV energy range. Its primary design goal is the study of powerful astrophysical objects that could act as natural particle accelerators and thus as sources of (ultra) high energy cosmic rays - in short: to do neutrino astronomy. IceCube has discovered a diffuse flux of high energy astrophysical neutrinos consistent with an extra-galactic origin. In addition the IceCube Collaboration …
Tau neutrinos with energies in the PeV-EeV range produce up-going extensive air showers (UEAS) if they interact underground close enough to the surface of the Earth. This work studies detectability of the UEAS with a system of fluorescence telescopes overlooking dark, low reflectivity, area on the ground up to the distances 20-30 km from mountain top(s). Such system could provide sensitivity sufficient for accumulation of the astrophysical neutrino signal statistics at the rate ten(s) events per year in the energy range beyond 10 PeV, thus allowing to extend the energy frontier of neutrino ast…
On July 30th, 2019 IceCube detected a high-energy astrophysical muon neutrino candidate, IC-190730A, with a $67\%$ probability of astrophysical origin. The flat spectrum radio quasar (FSRQ) PKS 1502+106 is in the error circle of the neutrino. Motivated by this observation, we study PKS 1502+106 as a possible source of IC-190730A. PKS 1502+106 was in a quiet state in terms of UV/optical/X-ray/gamma-ray flux at the time of the neutrino alert, we therefore model the expected neutrino emission from the source during its average long-term state, and investigate whether the emission of IC-190730A as…
Tau neutrinos are the least studied particle in the Standard Model. This whitepaper discusses the current and expected upcoming status of tau neutrino physics with attention to the broad experimental and theoretical landscape spanning long-baseline, beam-dump, collider, and astrophysical experiments. This whitepaper was prepared as a part of the NuTau2021 Workshop.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole has measured the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux up to ~PeV energies and is starting to identify first point source candidates. The next generation facility, IceCube-Gen2, aims at extending the accessible energy range to EeV in order to measure the continuation of the astrophysical spectrum, to identify neutrino sources, and to search for a cosmogenic neutrino flux. As part of IceCube-Gen2, a radio array is foreseen that is sensitive to detect Askaryan emission of neutrinos beyond ~30 PeV. Surface and deep antenna stations have different b…
The ANITA collaboration have reported observation of two anomalous events that appear to be $\varepsilon_{\rm cr} \approx 0.6$ EeV cosmic ray showers emerging from the Earth with exit angles of $27^\circ$ and $35^\circ$, respectively. While EeV-scale upgoing showers have been anticipated as a result of astrophysical tau neutrinos converting to tau leptons during Earth passage, the observed exit angles are much steeper than expected in Standard Model (SM) scenarios. Indeed, under conservative extrapolations of the SM interactions, there is no particle that can propagate through the Earth with p…
Acceleration of $π$'s and $μ$'s modifies the flavor ratio at Earth (at astrophysical sources) of neutrinos produced by $π$ decay, $ν_e:ν_μ:ν_τ$, from $1:1:1$ ($1:2:0$) to $1:1.8:1.8$ ($0:1:0$) at high energy, because $π$'s decay more than $μ$'s during secondary-acceleration. The neutrino spectrum accompanies a flat excess, differently from the case of energy losses. With the flavor spectra, we can probe timescales of cosmic-ray acceleration and shock dynamics. We obtain general solutions of convection-diffusion equations and apply to gamma-ray bursts, which may have the flavor modification at …
Astrophysical and atmospheric neutrinos are important probes of the powerful accelerators that produce cosmic-rays with EeV energies. Understanding these accelerators is a key goal of neutrino observatories, along with searches for neutrinos from supernovae, from dark matter annihilation, and other astrophysics topics. Here, we discuss how neutrino observatories like IceCube and future facilities like KM3NeT and IceCube-Gen2 can study the properties of high-energy (above 1 TeV) neutrino interactions. This is far higher than is accessible at man-made accelerators, where the highest energy neutr…
The only invariant speed in special relativity is c; therefore, if some neutrinos travel at even tiny speeds above c, normal special relativity is incomplete and any superluminal speed may be possible. I derive a limit on superluminal neutrino speeds v >> c at high energies by noting that such speeds would increase the size of the neutrino horizon. The increased volume of the Universe visible leads to a brighter astrophysical neutrino background. The nondetection of "guaranteed" neutrino backgrounds from star-forming galaxies and ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) constrains v/c at TeV--ZeV…
Astrophysical bounds on the high-energy evolution of neutrino mixing
Niels Bohr International Academy, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学尼尔斯玻尔国际学院、尼尔斯玻尔研究所）；Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University（西蒙菲莎大学物理系）；Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute（阿瑟·B·麦克唐纳加拿大高能粒子物理研究所）；Departament de Física Teórica and IFIC, Universitat de València-CSIC（瓦伦西亚大学-西班牙国家研究委员会理论物理系及IFIC研究所）
Investigations of the energy spectrum as well as the mass composition of cosmic rays in the energy range of PeVto EeV are important for understanding both, the origin of the galactic and the extragalactic cosmic rays. Recently, three modern experimental installations (KASCADE-Grande, IceTop, Tunka-133), dedicated to investigate this primary energy range, have published new results on the all-particle energy spectrum. In this short review these results are presented and the similarities and differences discussed. In addition, the effects of using different hadronic interaction models for interp…
Flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) are a particular class of blazars rich of optical/ultraviolet photons inside the broad line region (BLR), necessarily implying a huge optical depth for $γ$ rays above 20 GeV. As a consequence, photons with energy above such a threshold should not be emitted. However, photons in the energy range 70 - 400 GeV have been observed by MAGIC from the FSRQ PKS 1222+216. Several astrophysical explanations exist in the literature, but they are all ad hoc, namely devised only for that specific purpose. We show that such a surprising discovery can be explained within st…
Gamma-rays, the most energetic photons, carry information from the far reaches of extragalactic space with minimal interaction or loss of information. They bring messages about particle acceleration in environments so extreme they cannot be reproduced on earth for a closer look. Gamma-ray astrophysics is so complementary with collider work that particle physicists and astroparticle physicists are often one in the same. Gamma-ray instruments, especially the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, have been pivotal in major multi-messenger discoveries over the past decade. There is presently a great de…
The astrophysical neutrinos discovered by IceCube have the highest detected neutrino energies --- from TeV to PeV --- and likely travel the longest distances --- up to a few Gpc, the size of the observable Universe. These features make them naturally attractive probes of fundamental particle-physics properties, possibly tiny in size, at energy scales unreachable by any other means. The decades before the IceCube discovery saw many proposals of particle-physics studies in this direction. Today, those proposals have become a reality, in spite of astrophysical unknowns. We will showcase examples …
The Pierre Auger Observatory has been detecting ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) for more than fifteen years. An essential feature of the Observatory is its hybrid design: cosmic rays above $100~$PeV are detected through the observation of the associated air showers with different and complementary techniques, from surface detector arrays and fluorescence telescopes to radio antennas. The analyses of the multi-detector data have enabled high-statistics and high-precision studies of the energy spectrum, mass composition and distribution of arrival directions of UHECRs. The resulting pictu…
In this work, I present a qualitative discussion on the prospect of production of ultra-high photons in blazars. The sources are a subclass of active galactic nuclei which host supermassive black holes and fire relativistic jets into the intergalactic medium. The kpc scale jets are believed to be dominated by Poynting flux and constitute one of the most efficient cosmic particle accelerators, that potentially are capable of accelerating the particles up to EeV energies. Recent IceCube detection of astrophysical neutrino emission in coincidence with the enhanced gamma-ray from Tev blazar TXS 05…
Differences Between the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array Spectra: Systematic Effects or Indication of a Local Source of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays?
The Sun albedo of cosmic rays at GeVs energy has been discovered recently by FERMI satellite. They are traces of atmospheric CR hitting solar atmosphere and reflecting skimming gamma photons. Even if relevant for astrophysics, as being trace of atmospheric solar Cosmic Ray noises they cannot offer any signal of neutrino astronomy. On the contrary the Moon, with no atmosphere, may become soon a novel filtering calorimeter and an amplifier of energetic muon astronomical neutrinos (at TeV up to hundred TeV energy); these lepton tracks leave an imprint in their beta decay while in flight to Earth.…
Neutrinos are a very promising messenger at tens of EeV and above. They can be produced by several channels, namely as by products of hadronic interactions at the sources, as the main products of the decay of super massive particles and, in a guaranteed way, as the result of the propagation of UHECR through the bath of microwave relic photons. A new era of very large exposure space observatories, of which the JEM-EUSO mission is a prime example, is on the horizon and, with it, it is even larger the possibility of astrophysical neutrino detection at the highest energies. In the present work we …
Cherenkov telescopes could have the capability of detecting high energy tau neutrinos by searching for very inclined showers. If a tau lepton, produced by a tau neutrino, escapes from the Earth crust, it will decay and initiate an air shower which can be detected by a fluorescence/Cherenkov telescope. Here we present a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of event rates induced by tau neutrinos in the energy range from 1 PeV to 1 EeV. Topographic conditions are taken into account for a set of example locations. As expected, we find a neutrino sensitivity which depends on the shape of the energy spe…
Astrophysical neutrinos are excellent probes of astroparticle physics and high-energy physics. With energies far beyond solar, supernovae, atmospheric, and accelerator neutrinos, high-energy and ultra-high-energy neutrinos probe fundamental physics from the TeV scale to the EeV scale and beyond. They are sensitive to physics both within and beyond the Standard Model through their production mechanisms and in their propagation over cosmological distances. They carry unique information about their extreme non-thermal sources by giving insight into regions that are opaque to electromagnetic radia…
The IceCube collaboration has recently reported the observation of two events with energies in excess of 1 PeV. While an atmospheric origin of these events cannot be ruled out at this time, this pair of showers may potentially represent the first observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. In this paper, we argue that if these events are neutrino-induced, then the neutrinos are very likely to have been produced via photo-meson interactions taking place in the same class of astrophysical objects that are responsible for the acceleration of the $\sim$$10^{17}$ eV cosmic ray spectrum. Amo…
Axion-like particles (ALPs) are light, neutral, pseudo-scalar bosons predicted by several extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics -- such as the String Theory -- and are supposed to interact primarily only with two photons. In the presence of an external magnetic field, photon-ALP oscillations occur and can produce sizable astrophysical effects in the very-high energy (VHE) band ($100 \, {\rm GeV} - 100 \, {\rm TeV}$). Photon-ALP oscillations increase the transparency of the Universe to VHE photons partially preventing the gamma-gamma absorption caused by the Extragalactic Backgro…
