Massive stars and high-energy neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper reviews the production of high-energy neutrinos in systems with massive stars, discussing models, recent observational prospects, and implications for stellar evolution and cosmic ray origins.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of neutrino production mechanisms in massive star systems and discusses recent observational developments and their implications.

Findings

Improved models predict significant neutrino fluxes from massive binaries.

Detection of gamma-ray sources suggests hadronic processes in stellar systems.

Prospects for high-energy neutrino astronomy are promising with current telescopes.

Abstract

Massive stars have been associated with the production of high-energy neutrinos since the early claims of detection of very high-energy gamma rays from Cygnus X-3 in the 1970s and early 1980s. Although such claims are now discredited, many thoretical models were developed predicting significant neutrino fluxes from binary systems with massive stars. With the discovery of microquasars, new, improved models appeared. The large neutrino telescopes currently under construction (IceCube, Antares) and the detection of gamma-ray sources of likely hadronic origin associated with massive binaries and star-forming regions make the prospects for high-energy neutrino astronomy quite promising. In this paper I will review the basic features of neutrino production in stellar systems and I will discuss the physical implications of a positive neutrino detection from such systems for our view of the stellar evolution and comsic ray origin.