High-Energy Neutrino Emission from White Dwarf Mergers

Abstract

The merger of two white dwarfs is expected to result in a central fast rotating core surrounded by a debris disk, in which magnetorotational instabilities give rise to a hot magnetized corona and a magnetized outflow. The dissipation of magnetic energy via reconnection could lead to the acceleration of cosmic-rays in the expanding material, which would result in high energy neutrinos. We discuss the possibility of using these neutrino signals as probes of the outflow dynamics, magnetic energy dissipation rate and cosmic-ray acceleration efficiency. Importantly, the accompanying high-energy gamma-rays are absorbed within these sources because of the large optical depth, so these neutrino sources can be regarded as hidden cosmic-ray accelerators that are consistent with the non-detection of gamma-rays with Fermi-LAT. While the cosmic-ray generation rate is highly uncertain, if it reaches $\sim 10^{45}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{Mp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-3}\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$, the diffuse neutrino flux could contribute a substantial fraction of the IceCube observations. We also evaluate the prospect of observing individual merger events, which provides a means for testing such sources in the future.

8 pages, 6 figures, ApJ accepted

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• High Energy Neutrinos from Choked Gamma-Ray Bursts in AGN Accretion Disks
• Orbital decay of double white dwarfs: beyond gravitational wave radiation effects
• Search for GeV and X-ray flares associated with the IceCube track-like neutrinos
• Prompt Neutrino Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Dissipative Photospheric Scenario Revisited: Possible Contributions from Cocoons
• Revealing Double White Dwarf Mergers with Multi-messenger Signals
• High-energy Neutrinos from Stellar Explosions in Active Galactic Nuclei Accretion Disks