On the potential of Cherenkov Telescope Arrays and KM3 Neutrino Telescopes for the detection of extended sources

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the discovery potential of future KM3NeT neutrino telescopes for extended VHE neutrino sources, comparing their sensitivity with CTA gamma-ray surveys to identify promising sources and inform observational strategies.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of KM3NeT and CTA sensitivities for detecting extended VHE neutrino sources, establishing flux thresholds and applying methods to known astrophysical objects.

Findings

Minimum gamma-ray flux for neutrino detection at 10 TeV is 1x10^{-12} TeV cm^{-2} s^{-1} for 0.1 deg sources.

Detection threshold increases to 2x10^{-11} TeV cm^{-2} s^{-1} for 2.0 deg sources.

Analysis applied to supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946 and Galactic Center Ridge.

Abstract

We discuss the discovery potential of extended very-high-energy (VHE) neutrino sources by the future KM3 Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT) in the context of the constraining power of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), designed for deep surveys of the sky in VHE gamma rays. The study is based on a comparative analysis of sensitivities of KM3NeT and CTA. We show that a minimum gamma-ray energy flux of E^2{\phi}_{\gamma}(10 TeV) > 1x10^{-12} TeV cm^{-2} s^{-1} is required to identify a possible neutrino counterpart with a 3{\sigma} significance and 10 years of KM3NeT observations with upgoing muons, if the source has an angular size of R_{src} = 0.1 deg and emits gamma rays with an E^{-2} energy spectrum through a full hadronic mechanism. This minimum gamma-ray flux is increased to the level of E^2{\phi}_{\gamma}(10 TeV) > 2x10^{-11} TeV cm^{-2} s^{-1} in case of sources with radial extension of R_{src} = 2.0 deg. The analysis methods are applied to the supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946 and the Galactic Center Ridge, as well as to the recent HAWC catalog of multi-TeV gamma-ray sources.