Testing the AGN Radio and Neutrino correlation using the MOJAVE catalog and 10 years of IceCube Data

TL;DR

This study investigates the potential correlation between radio emissions from AGN and high-energy neutrinos using a decade of IceCube data and MOJAVE catalog radio observations, aiming to clarify the role of blazars in neutrino production.

Contribution

The paper provides the first extensive correlation analysis between MOJAVE AGN radio data and 10 years of IceCube neutrino observations, employing a time-averaged stacking method.

Findings

No statistically significant radio-neutrino correlation found.

Supports the hypothesis that blazars contribute to high-energy neutrino flux.

Highlights the need for more data to confirm potential correlations.

Abstract

On 22 September 2017, IceCube reported a high-energy neutrino event which was found to be coincident with a flaring blazar, TXS 0506+056. This multi-messenger observation hinted at blazars contributing to the observed high-energy astrophysical neutrinos and raised a need for extensive correlation studies. Recent work shows that the internal absorption of gamma rays, and their interactions intrinsic to the source and with the extragalactic background, will cause a lack of energetic gamma-ray and neutrino correlation while hinting towards a correlation between neutrinos and lower photon energy observations in the X-ray and radio bands. Studies based on published IceCube alerts and radio observations report a possible radio-neutrino correlation in both gamma-ray bright and gamma-ray dim active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, they have marginal statistical significance due to limited available data. We present a correlation analysis between 15 GHz radio observations of AGN reported in the MOJAVE XV catalog and 10 years of IceCube detector data and discuss the results derived from a time-averaged stacking analysis.