A Neutral Beam Model for High-Energy Neutrino Emission from the Blazar TXS 0506+056

Abstract

The IceCube collaboration reported a $\sim 3.5\sigma$ excess of $13\pm 5$ neutrino events in the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+56 during a $\sim$6 month period in 2014-2015, as well as the ($\sim 3\sigma$) detection of a high-energy muon neutrino during an electromagnetic flare in 2017. We explore the possibility that the 2014-2015 neutrino excess and the 2017 multi-messenger flare are both explained in a common physical framework that relies on the emergence of a relativistic neutral beam in the blazar jet due to interactions of accelerated cosmic rays (CRs) with photons. We demonstrate that the neutral beam model provides an explanation for the 2014-2015 neutrino excess without violating X-ray and $\gamma$-ray constraints, and also yields results consistent with the detection of one high-energy neutrino during the 2017 flare. If both neutrino associations with TXS 05065+056 are real, our model requires that (i) the composition of accelerated CRs is light, with a ratio of helium nuclei to protons $\gtrsim 5$, (ii) a luminous external photon field ($\sim 10^{46}$ erg s${}^{-1}$) variable (on year-long timescales) is present, and (iii) the CR injection luminosity as well as the properties of the dissipation region (i.e., Lorentz factor, magnetic field, and size) vary on year-long timescales.

16 pages, 6 figures, added discussion and references, accepted for publication in ApJ

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• High-energy neutrinos from X-rays flares of blazars frequently observed by the Swift X-Ray Telescope
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• Nuclear and electromagnetic cascades induced by ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays in radio galaxies: implications for Centaurus A
• Implications of multiwavelength spectrum on cosmic-ray acceleration in blazar TXS 0506+056
• The Intrinsic Gamma-Ray Spectrum of TXS 0506+056: Intergalactic Propagation Effects
• A closer look at the electromagnetic signatures of Bethe-Heitler pair production process in blazars
• The relativistic parsec-scale jets of the blazars TXS 0506+056 and PKS 0502+049 and their possible association with gamma-ray flares and neutrino production
• Electron-positron pair plasma in TXS 0506+056 and the "neutrino flare" in 2014-2015
• Searching for temporary gamma-ray dark blazars associated with IceCube neutrinos
• Constraints on the hosts of UHECR accelerators
• Multi-messenger emission from magnetic reconnection in blazar jets: the case of TXS 0506+056
• Hunting for neutrino emission from multi-frequency variable sources
• Medium-band observation of the neutrino emitting blazar, TXS 0506+056
• Multi-messenger connection in high-energy neutrino astronomy
• Bounds on neutrino-DM interactions from TXS 0506+056 neutrino outburst
• Multi-messenger emission from the parsec-scale jet of the flat-spectrum radio quasar PKS 1502+106 coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-190730A
• Constraining the baryon loading factor of AGN jets: implication from the gamma-ray emission of the Coma cluster
• Diffuse astrophysical neutrinos from dark matter around blazars
• A Unified Framework for 10 TeV to EeV Diffuse Neutrino Sky and KM3-230213A
• A test of the hadronic origin of $\gamma$-rays from blazars with up to month-later follow-up of IceCube Alerts with Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes
• Analytical Constraints on the Radius and Bulk Lorentz Factor in the Lepto-Hadronic One-Zone Model of BL Lacs
• Physical origin of very-high-energy gamma rays from the low-luminosity active galactic nucleus NGC 4278 and implications for neutrino observations