Nova Neutrinos in the Multi-Messenger Era

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential for detecting neutrinos from nova RS Ophiuchi's high-energy emissions, analyzing the implications for multi-messenger astronomy with current and future neutrino telescopes.

Contribution

It provides the first estimates of neutrino detection rates from galactic novae using current and upcoming neutrino observatories, considering both hadronic and leptonic emission models.

Findings

Expected neutrino detections with IceCube-Gen2 are about once per decade.

Detection rate could increase to once every three years based on nova occurrence frequency.

Both hadronic and leptonic models can explain the observed gamma-ray emission.

Abstract

The recently discovered high energy emission from the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi by Fermi-LAT ($>$ 100 MeV), H.E.S.S. and MAGIC ($>$ 100 GeV), hints towards a possible hadronic origin of this radiation component. From the observed high energy photon flux we derive the expected number of neutrino events that could be detected by present and future neutrino telescopes in the different energy ranges. We find that both hadronic and leptonic processes remain valid interpretations for this $ \ gamma $ emission. Preliminary estimates indicate that with the "next-generation" instrument IceCube-Gen2, the expected number of neutrino detections from Galactic novae is of the order of $\sim $ once per decade. Given the current uncertainties in the frequency of the occurrence of nova outbursts, the detection rate may possibly increase to up to once every $\sim $ three years.