Neutrinos and gamma-rays from Galaxy Clusters constrained by the upper limits of IceCube

TL;DR

This study constrains cosmic ray acceleration in galaxy clusters by comparing simulated neutrino and gamma-ray emissions with IceCube upper limits, refining models of multi-messenger signals from these large structures.

Contribution

It revisits previous models of cosmic ray interactions in galaxy clusters, incorporating IceCube upper limits to narrow down the parameter space of cosmic ray injection.

Findings

Neutrino flux from galaxy clusters is consistent with IceCube upper limits for certain cosmic ray parameters.

Cluster contribution to the diffuse gamma-ray background remains significant at energies above 500 GeV.

Cosmic rays with spectral indices 2.0-2.5 and cutoff energies 10^{16}-10^{17} eV are compatible with observational constraints.

Abstract

Clusters of galaxies possess the capability to accelerate cosmic rays (CRs) to very high energy up to $\sim10^{18}$~eV due to their large size and magnetic field strength which favor CR confinement for cosmological times. During their confinement, they can produce neutrinos and $\gamma-$rays out of interactions with the background gas and photon fields. In recent work, \cite{hussain2021high, hussain2023diffuse} have conducted three-dimensional cosmological magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of the turbulent intracluster medium (ICM) combined with multi-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations of CR propagation for redshifts ranging from $z \sim 5$ to $z = 0$ to study the multi-messenger emission from these sources. They found that when CRs with a spectral index in the range $1.5 - 2.5$ and cutoff energy $E_\mathrm{max} = 10^{16} - 10^{17}$~eV are injected into the system, they make significant contributions to the diffuse background emission of both neutrinos and gamma-rays. In this work, we have revisited this model and undertaken further constraints on the parametric space. This was achieved by incorporating the recently established upper limits on neutrino emission from galaxy clusters, as obtained by the IceCube experiment. We find that for CRs injected with spectral indices in the range $2.0 - 2.5$, cutoff energy $E_\mathrm{max} = 10^{16} - 10^{17}$~eV, and power corresponding to $(0.1-1)\%$ of the cluster luminosity, our neutrino flux aligns with the upper limits estimated by IceCube. Additionally, the resulting contribution from clusters to the diffuse $\gamma$-ray background (DGRB) remains significant with values of the order of $ \sim 10^{-5}\, \mathrm{MeV} \, \mathrm{cm}^{-2} \,\mathrm{s}^{-1} \, \mathrm{sr}^{-1}$ at energies above $500$ GeV.