Can tidal disruption events produce the IceCube neutrinos?

TL;DR

This study evaluates whether tidal disruption events (TDEs) can account for the high-energy neutrinos detected by IceCube, concluding that jetted TDEs are unlikely the main source unless wide-angle neutrino emission occurs.

Contribution

The paper provides a realistic assessment of TDEs as neutrino sources, considering emission limits and event rates, and suggests observational tests for their contribution to IceCube neutrinos.

Findings

Jetted TDEs are unlikely to explain IceCube neutrino flux.

Non-jetted TDEs could contribute if they produce wide-angle neutrino emission.

Certain recent TDEs are promising candidates for IceCube detection.

Abstract

Powerful jets and outflows generated in tidal disruption events (TDEs) around supermassive black holes have been suggested to be possible sites producing high-energy neutrinos, but it is unclear whether such environment can provide the bulk of the neutrinos detected by the IceCube Observatory. In this work, by considering realistic limits on the non-thermal emission power of a TDE jet and the birth rate of the TDEs with jets pointing towards us, we show that it is hard to use the jetted TDE population to explain the flux and the isotropic arrival directions of the observed TeV-PeV neutrinos. Therefore, TDEs cannot be the dominant sources, unless those without aligned jets can produce wide-angle emission of neutrino particles. Supposing that is the case, we list a few recent jetted and non-jetted TDEs that have the best chance to be detected by IceCube, based on their energetics, distances, and directions. A spatial and temporal association of these predicted events with the IceCube data should provide a decisive test on the full TDE population as origins of the IceCube neutrinos.