Search for High Energy Neutrinos from Infrared Flares

TL;DR

This study investigates whether infrared flares from accreting supermassive black holes are associated with high-energy neutrinos, using extensive WISE data and IceCube observations to assess potential correlations and detectability.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of a large IR flare catalog against IceCube data, exploring neutrino emission potential and reevaluating previous correlations with improved datasets.

Findings

No significant neutrino excess found in stacking analysis.

Extended IR flare catalog increases sensitivity for neutrino detection.

Revised analysis of nuclear flares with updated IceCube alerts.

Abstract

IceCube has detected a diffuse flux of high-energy neutrinos, whose origin still remains uncertain. Accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) have been proposed as plausible sources of neutrinos. Candidate sources include AT2019dsg, which is likely a stellar tidal disruption event (TDE), and AT2019dfr, an AGN flare. Both present delayed emission in the IR band with respect to the optical signal. This emission can be interpreted as the reprocessing of X-rays to optical light of the flare by dust located in a torus around the SMBH. An additional study using an optically detected sample of 63 accretion flares revealed another candidate as a potential high-energy neutrino counterpart: AT2019aalc, which is also accompanied by a dust echo. However, follow-up stacking analysis of the 63 nuclear flares using the full IceCube data sample did not show any significant excess over background. Motivated by these three suggested neutrino-TDE correlations, we analyze a more extensive catalog of IR flares, 823 dust-echo-like flares identified using WISE satellite data, against the IceCube 10-year sample of track events from the Northern Sky. Our analysis aims to perform sensitivity studies and assess the potential detectability of neutrino emission from these types of accretion flares. In addition, we carry out a correlation study of the 823 dust echo-like flares against a revised catalog of IceCube high-purity astrophysical alerts, and reevaluate the previous study of 63 nuclear flares against the same revised alerts sample.