Correlating high-energy IceCube neutrinos with 5BZCAT blazars and RFC sources

TL;DR

This study tests the correlation between blazars and high-energy neutrinos detected by IceCube, finding no significant correlation in extended data sets, thus challenging previous claims of a strong association.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive analysis using larger and more uniform blazar samples and extended neutrino data, clarifying the lack of significant correlation and refining the understanding of blazars' role in neutrino production.

Findings

No significant correlation in extended data sets.

Previous strong correlation likely due to statistical fluctuation.

Blazars contribute to neutrino signals but are not the dominant sources.

Abstract

We investigate the possibility that blazars in the Roma-BZCAT Multifrequency Catalogue of Blazars (5BZCAT) are sources of the high-energy astrophysical neutrinos detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, as recently suggested by Buson et al. (2022a,b). Although we can reproduce their $\sim 4.6\, \sigma$ result, which applies to 7 years of neutrino data in the Southern sky, we find no significant correlation with 5BZCAT sources when extending the search to the Northern sky, where IceCube is most sensitive to astrophysical signals. To further test this scenario, we use a larger sample consisting of 10 years of neutrino data recently released by the IceCube collaboration, this time finding no significant correlation in either the Southern or the Northern sky. These results suggest that the strong correlation reported by Buson et al. (2022a,b) using 5BZCAT could be due to a statistical fluctuation and possibly the spatial and flux non-uniformities in the blazar sample. We perform some additional correlation tests using the more uniform, flux-limited, and blazar-dominated Radio Fundamental Catalogue (RFC) and find a $\sim 3.2\sigma$ equivalent p-value when correlating it with the 7-year Southern neutrino sky. However, this correlation disappears completely when extending the analysis to the Northern sky and when analyzing 10 years of all-sky neutrino data. Our findings support a scenario where the contribution of the whole blazar class to the IceCube signal is relevant but not dominant, in agreement with most previous studies.