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Observation of AGILE transient \(\gamma \)-ray sources in coincidence with cosmic neutrino events

  • A Decade of AGILE
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Rendiconti Lincei. Scienze Fisiche e Naturali Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The origin of the diffuse flux of very high-energy cosmic neutrinos above TeV energies observed by the IceCube experiment at the South Pole is still largely unknown. Simultaneous multi-frequency observations of the uncertainty location regions of these cosmic neutrinos are needed to identify the possible electromagnetic counterpart. Since 2016, the IceCube collaboration alerts almost in real time the astronomical community whenever a clear signature of a neutrino-induced event is recorded. The AGILE \(\gamma \)-ray satellite is fully involved in this multi-messenger hunt for cosmic neutrino sources. Using data obtained by the \(\gamma \)-ray imager onboard of the satellite, we searched for transient gamma-ray sources above 100 MeV that are temporally and spatially coincident with recent high-energy neutrino IceCube events. We find three AGILE candidate sources that can be considered as possible counterparts to neutrino events. The chance probability of this association is shown to be very low. One of the sources detected by AGILE in \(\gamma \) rays is the blazar TXS 0506+056, recently suggested as the first most likely extra-galactic emitter of TeV neutrinos. For the other two gamma-ray sources there are no obvious known counterparts, and both galactic and extragalactic origin should be considered.

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Notes

  1. https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/amon_hese_events.html.

  2. https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/amon_ehe_events.html.

  3. Sensitivity (at 5\(\sigma \) detection level) to gamma-ray fluxes above 100 MeV: \((2 \div 3) \times 10^{-6}\,\hbox{ph}\,\hbox {cm}^{-2}\,\hbox {s}^{-1}\) over 2-day integration time intervals. Mean angular resolution (FWHM): \(2.5^\circ \) in the 100–400 MeV energy range; \(1.2^\circ \) in the 400 MeV–1 GeV band (Sabatini et al. 2015).

  4. http://agile.asdc.asi.it/public/AGILE_SW_5.0_SourceCode/.

  5. The length of the fixed-time search window for these transient phenomena (whose timescales are still uncertain) is based on the typical AGILE sensitivity to transient gamma-ray sources over 2-day periods.

  6. Based on the typical AGILE angular resolution, we used the values of 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 degrees for the database search radius around the initial IceCube input sky positions.

  7. N is the number of global trials given by the product of two contributions: the total number of IceCube events considered (10), and the number (3) of optimizations of the AGILE detections DB search radius.

  8. http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/notices_amon/6888376_128290.amon.

  9. https://tools.ssdc.asi.it.

  10. http://www.openuniverse.asi.it.

  11. https://tools.asdc.asi.it/?&searchtype=fermi.

  12. We notice that the FERMI–LAT fluxes estimated with the online SSDC tool can be overestimated up to a factor of 2.

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Acknowledgements

We thank ASI personnel involved in the operations and the data center of the AGILE mission. AGILE is an ASI space mission developed with scientific and programmatic support from INAF and INFN. Research was partially supported through the ASI grant no. I/028/12/2. Part of this work is based on archival data, software and online services provided by the ASI-Space Science Data Center (SSDC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INAF–OAR, via Frascati 33, Monte Porzio Catone, 00078, Rome, Italy

    Fabrizio Lucarelli

  2. ASI Space Science Data Center (SSDC), Via del Politecnico snc, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Fabrizio Lucarelli

  3. INAF/IAPS-Roma, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133, Roma, Italy

    Marco Tavani

  4. Univ. Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133, Roma, Italy

    Marco Tavani

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  1. Fabrizio Lucarelli
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Correspondence to Fabrizio Lucarelli.

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This paper is the peer-reviewed version of a contribution selected among those presented at the Conference on Gamma-Ray Astrophysics with the AGILE Satellite held at Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Rome on December 11–13, 2017.

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Lucarelli, F., Tavani, M. & the AGILE Team. Observation of AGILE transient \(\gamma \)-ray sources in coincidence with cosmic neutrino events. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 30 (Suppl 1), 149–154 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-019-00862-0

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