Nonthermal processes and neutrino emission from the black hole GRO J0422+32 in a bursting state

TL;DR

This paper models nonthermal processes and estimates neutrino emission from the black hole GRO J0422+32 during its flaring state, assessing the potential for detection with IceCube despite short flare durations and energy cutoffs.

Contribution

It introduces a magnetized corona model for GRO J0422+32 and evaluates neutrino production and detectability during its flaring phase.

Findings

Neutrino emission is challenging to detect due to short flare durations and energy cutoffs.

Time-dependent analysis with IceCube could potentially detect neutrino bursts.

The model explains the spectral behavior during the low-hard state of GRO J0422+32.

Abstract

GRO J0422+32 is a member of the class of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). It was discovered during an outburst in 1992. During the entire episode a persistent power-law spectral component extending up to $\sim 1$ MeV was observed, which suggests that nonthermal processes should have occurred in the system. We study relativistic particle interactions and the neutrino production in the corona of GRO J0422+32, and explain the behavior of GRO J0422+32 during its recorded flaring phase. We have developed a magnetized corona model to fit the spectrum of GRO J0422+32 during the low-hard state. We also estimate neutrino emission and study the detectability of neutrinos with 1 km$^3$ detectors, such as IceCube. The short duration of the flares ($\sim$ hours) and an energy cutoff around a few TeV in the neutrino spectrum make neutrino detection difficult. There are, however, many factors that can enhance neutrino emission. The northern-sky coverage and full duty cycle of IceCube make it possible to detect neutrino bursts from objects of this kind through time-dependent analysis.