Hadronic origin of multi-TeV gamma rays and neutrinos from low-luminosity active galactic nuclei: implications of past activities of the Galactic center

Abstract

Radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs) in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) have been suggested as cosmic-ray and neutrino sources that may largely contribute to the observed diffuse neutrino intensity. We show that this scenario naturally predicts hadronic multi-TeV gamma-ray excesses around Galactic centers. The protons accelerated in the RIAF in Sagittarius A${}^{\ast }$ (Sgr A${}^{\ast }$) escape and interact with dense molecular gas surrounding Sgr A${}^{\ast }$, which is known as the central molecular zone (CMZ), and produce gamma rays as well as neutrinos. Based on a theoretical model that is compatible with the IceCube data, we calculate gamma-ray spectra of the CMZ and find that the gamma rays with $\gtrsim 1$ TeV may have already been detected with the High Energy Stereoscopic System, if Sgr A${}^{\ast }$ was more active in the past than it is today as indicated by various observations. Our model predicts that neutrinos should come from the CMZ with a spectrum similar to the gamma-ray spectrum. We also show that such a gamma-ray excess is expected for some nearby galaxies hosting LLAGNs.

Published in Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (16)

• Atmospheric and Astrophysical Neutrinos above 1 TeV Interacting in IceCube
• Star-forming galaxies as the origin of diffuse high-energy backgrounds: Gamma-ray and neutrino connections, and implications for starburst history
• Black hole lightning due to particle acceleration at subhorizon scales
• The mass of the black hole in Centaurus A from SINFONI AO-assisted integral-field observations of stellar kinematics
• Time-Dependent Stochastic Particle Acceleration in Astrophysical Plasmas: Exact Solutions Including Momentum-Dependent Escape
• Fermi Bubbles Inflated by Winds Launched from the Hot Accretion Flow in Sgr A*
• New results on particle acceleration in the Centaurus A jet and counterjet from a deep Chandra observation
• The diffuse gamma-ray flux associated with sub-PeV/PeV neutrinos from starburst galaxies
• Galaxy Mergers as a Source of Cosmic Rays, Neutrinos, and Gamma Rays
• Parameterization of the Angular Distribution of Gamma Rays Produced by p-p Interaction in Astronomical Environment
• A Possible Link Between the Galactic Center HESS Source and Sgr A*
• The Cosmic Ray Population of the Galactic Central Molecular Zone
• Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos from Gamma-Ray Bursts, Hypernovae and Galactic Shocks
• Synchrotron Self-Compton Emission by Relativistic Electrons under Stochastic Acceleration: Application to Mrk 421 and Mrk 501
• Bounds on the origin of extragalactic ultrahigh energy cosmic rays from the IceCube neutrino observations
• Obtaining the diffusion coefficient for cosmic ray propagation in the Galactic Centre Ridge through time-dependent simulations of their gamma-ray emission

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Constraining High-Energy Cosmic Neutrino Sources: Implications and Prospects
• Neutrino lighthouse powered by Sagittarius A* disk dynamo
• Ultrahigh-energy neutrinos as a probe of espresso-shear acceleration in jets of Centaurus A
• High-energy Gamma-rays from Magnetically Arrested Disks in Nearby Radio Galaxies
• Study of the very high energy gamma-ray spectrum from the Galactic Center and future prospects
• A New Particle Pusher with Hadronic Interactions for Modeling Multimessenger Emission from Compact Objects
• TeV Gamma-Rays from the Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nucleus NGC 4278: Implications for the Diffuse Neutrino Background
• Recent advances on multimessenger astrophysics: Centaurus A, GW 170817, and KM3-230213A
• Diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Galactic center and implications of its past activities