Efficiency of Centrifugal Mechanism in Producing PeV Neutrinos From Active Galactic Nuclei

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model explaining how active galactic nuclei can produce PeV neutrinos through a gravitationally driven acceleration mechanism involving Langmuir waves and hadronic reactions.

Contribution

It introduces the Langmuir-Landau-Centrifugal-Drive (LLCD) mechanism as a novel process for generating ultra-high-energy protons in AGN environments, linking gravitational energy to neutrino production.

Findings

UHE protons of ~10^{17} eV can be generated in AGN plasmas.

A small fraction (0.003%) of AGN bolometric luminosity suffices to produce observed neutrino fluxes.

The model aligns with IceCube's detection of PeV neutrinos.

Abstract

A several-step theoretical model is constructed to trace the origin of ultra high energy (UHE) $[1-2]$PeV neutrinos detected, recently, by the IceCube collaboration. Protons in the AGN magnetosphere, experiencing different gravitational centrifugal force, provide free energy for the parametric excitation of Langmuir waves via a generalized two-stream instability. Landau damping of these waves, outside the AGN magnetosphere, can accelerate protons to ultra high energies. The ultimate source for this mechanism, the Langmuir-Landau-Centrifugal-Drive (LLCD), is the gravitational energy of the compact object. The LLCD generated UHE protons provide the essential ingredient in the creation of UHE neutrinos via appropriate hadronic reactions; protons of energy~ $10^{17}$eV can be generated in the plasmas surrounding AGN with bolometric luminosities of the order of $10^{43}$ergs s$^{-1}$. By estimating the diffusive energy flux of extragalactic neutrinos in the energy interval $[1-2]$PeV, we find that an acceptably small fraction $0.003\%$ of the total bolometric luminosity will suffice to create the observed fluxes of extragalactic ultra-high energy neutrinos.