Multiwavelength search for the origin of IceCube's neutrinos

TL;DR

This study searches for astrophysical sources of IceCube neutrinos by cross-referencing neutrino data with gamma-ray, X-ray, and radio catalogs, finding potential source populations that could explain a significant fraction of detected neutrinos.

Contribution

It introduces a method combining multiwavelength catalogs to identify candidate neutrino sources and estimates their contribution to IceCube neutrino flux.

Findings

Certain radio and gamma-ray sources can explain up to 53% of neutrinos.

Source populations show statistical overfluctuations suggesting real contributions.

More refined source selection methods are needed for definitive identification.

Abstract

The origin of astrophysical high-energy neutrinos detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory remains a mystery to be solved. In this paper we search for neutrino source candidates within the $90$% containment area of $70$ track-type neutrino events recorded by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. By employing the Fermi-LAT 4FGL-DR2, the Swift-XRT 2SXPS and the CRATES catalogs, we identify possible gamma, X-ray and flat-spectrum radio candidate sources of track-type neutrinos. We find that based on the brightness of sources and their spatial correlation with the track-type IceCube neutrinos, the constructed neutrino samples represent special populations of sources taken from the full Fermi-LAT 4FGL-DR2/Swift-XRT 2SXPS/CRATES catalogs with similar significance ($2.1\sigma$, $1.2\sigma$, $2\sigma$ at $4.8~\mathrm{GHz}$, $2.1\sigma$ at $8.4~\mathrm{GHz}$, respectively, assuming 50% astrophysical signalness). After collecting redshifts and deriving sub-samples of the CRATES catalog complete in the redshift--luminosity plane, we find that the 4.8 GHz ($8.4$~GHz) sub-sample can explain between 4% and 53% ($3$% and $42$%) of the neutrinos (90% C.L.), when the probability to detect a neutrino is proportional to the ($k$-corrected) radio flux. The overfluctuations indicate that a part of the sample is likely to contribute and that more sophisticated schemes in the source catalog selection are necessary to identify the neutrino sources at the $5\sigma$ level. Our selection serves as a starting point to further select the correct sources.