Neutrinos and Gamma Rays from Galaxy Clusters

Abstract

The next generation of neutrino and gamma-ray detectors should provide new insights into the creation and propagation of high-energy protons within galaxy clusters, probing both the particle physics of cosmic rays interacting with the background medium and the mechanisms for high-energy particle production within the cluster. In this paper we examine the possible detection of gamma-rays (via the GLAST satellite) and neutrinos (via the ICECUBE and Auger experiments) from the Coma cluster of galaxies, as well as for the gamma-ray bright clusters Abell 85, 1758, and 1914. These three were selected from their possible association with unidentified EGRET sources, so it is not yet entirely certain that their gamma-rays are indeed produced diffusively within the intracluster medium, as opposed to AGNs. It is not obvious why these inconspicuous Abell-clusters should be the first to be seen in gamma-rays, but a possible reason is that all of them show direct evidence of recent or ongoing mergers. Their identification with the EGRET gamma-ray sources is also supported by the close correlation between their radio and (purported) gamma-ray fluxes. Under favorable conditions (including a proton spectral index of 2.5 in the case of Abell 85, and sim 2.3 for Coma, and Abell 1758 and 1914), we expect ICECUBE to make as many as 0.3 neutrino detections per year from the Coma cluster of galaxies, and as many as a few per year from the Abell clusters 85, 1758, and 1914. Also, Auger may detect as many as 2 events per decade at ~ EeV energies from these gamma-ray bright clusters.

Accepted for publication in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• The Astrophysics of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays
• Searches for Extended and Point-like Neutrino Sources with Four Years of IceCube Data
• Search for time-independent neutrino emission from astrophysical sources with 3 years of IceCube data
• Propagation of ultrahigh energy nuclei in clusters of galaxies: resulting composition and secondary emissions
• Probing the origin of giant radio halos through radio and gamma-ray data : the case of the Coma cluster
• Galaxy Clusters as Reservoirs of Heavy Dark Matter and High-Energy Cosmic Rays: Constraints from Neutrino Observations
• High-energy neutrinos from sources in clusters of galaxies
• Disentangling the gamma-ray emission of NGC1275 and that of the Perseus cluster
• A first estimate of radio halo statistics from large-scale cosmological simulation