Neutrino Counterparts of Fast Radio Bursts

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for high-energy neutrino emission coinciding with fast radio bursts from magnetars, proposing a baryon-loaded shock model that predicts detectable neutrino signals with current and future observatories.

Contribution

It introduces a novel prediction of neutrino counterparts to FRBs based on a baryon-loaded shock scenario, linking radio, X-ray, and neutrino emissions in magnetar flares.

Findings

Neutrino bursts are expected to carry 10^-8 to 10^-5 of the flare energy.

Neutrino energies are predicted to be in the TeV-PeV range.

Detection prospects with IceCube and future detectors are discussed.

Abstract

The discovery of a luminous radio burst, FRB 200428, with properties similar to those of fast radio bursts (FRB), in coincidence with an X-ray flare from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154, supports magnetar models for cosmological FRBs. The burst's X-ray to radio fluence ratio, as well as the X-ray spectral shape and peak energy, are consistent with FRB 200428 being the result of an ultra-relativistic shock (powered, e.g., by an ejected plasmoid) propagating into a magnetized baryon-rich external medium; the shock simultaneously generates X-ray/gamma-rays via thermal synchrotron emission from electrons heated behind the shock, and coherent radio emission via the synchrotron maser mechanism. Here, we point out that a unique consequence of this baryon-loaded shock scenario is the generation of a coincident burst of high-energy neutrinos, generated by photo-hadronic interaction of relativistic ions - heated or accelerated at the shock - with thermal synchrotron photons. We estimate the properties of these neutrino burst FRB counterparts and find that a fraction ~1e-8-1e-5 of the flare energy (or ~1e-4-0.1 of the radio isotropic energy) is channeled into production of neutrinos with typical energies ~ TeV-PeV. We conclude by discussing prospects for detecting this signal with IceCube and future high-energy neutrino detectors.