Searching for VHE gamma-ray emission associated with IceCube neutrino alerts using FACT, H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS

TL;DR

This paper discusses the follow-up observations of IceCube neutrino alerts using major gamma-ray telescopes to identify potential astrophysical sources, highlighting recent results and system upgrades.

Contribution

It presents recent results from IACT follow-up programs and describes the upgraded IceCube GFU system for neutrino alert analysis.

Findings

Successful follow-up observations of neutrino alerts.

Detection of gamma-ray emissions associated with neutrino events.

Enhanced system for real-time neutrino alert analysis.

Abstract

The realtime follow-up of neutrino events is a promising approach to search for astrophysical neutrino sources. It has so far provided compelling evidence for a neutrino point source: the flaring gamma-ray blazar TXS 0506+056 observed in coincidence with the high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A detected by IceCube. The detection of very-high-energy gamma rays (VHE, $\mathrm{E} > 100\,\mathrm{GeV}$) from this source helped establish the coincidence and constrained the modeling of the blazar emission at the time of the IceCube event. The four major imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays (IACTs) - FACT, H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS - operate an active follow-up program of target-of-opportunity observations of neutrino alerts sent by IceCube. This program has two main components. One are the observations of known gamma-ray sources around which a cluster of candidate neutrino events has been identified by IceCube (Gamma-ray Follow-Up, GFU). Second one is the follow-up of single high-energy neutrino candidate events of potential astrophysical origin such as IceCube-170922A. GFU has been recently upgraded by IceCube in collaboration with the IACT groups. We present here recent results from the IACT follow-up programs of IceCube neutrino alerts and a description of the upgraded IceCube GFU system.