Possible $\nu$ Source Class: 3-sigma Detection of High-Energy Neutrinos from Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates

TL;DR

This study presents the first search for high-energy neutrino emission from supermassive black hole binaries, finding evidence at 3.0σ significance that suggests these binaries are potential neutrino sources, linking neutrino and gravitational-wave signals.

Contribution

It introduces a novel search for neutrinos from SMBHBs, providing the first evidence of their role as high-energy neutrino emitters based on 10 years of IceCube data.

Findings

Positive correlation with 3.0σ significance

First evidence linking SMBHBs to neutrino emission

Potential connection between neutrino and gravitational-wave signals

Abstract

Identifying the sources of high-energy (TeV-PeV) astrophysical neutrinos is crucial for studies in both astrophysics and particle physics. Despite extensive searches for more than a decade, which revealed several individual potential sources and only one potential source class, the origins of these neutrinos remain largely unresolved; thus, more source classes should be investigated. In this work, we conduct the first search for high-energy neutrino emission from a new source class, supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs), which are also theoretically motivated. We perform an unbinned maximum-likelihood-ratio analysis on our constructed catalog of 693 SMBHB candidates and 10 years of IceCube public data. Our results show positive correlations, with higher significance in more physically motivated scenarios and the highest significance at 3.0$\sigma$. In addition, we also study potential connections between SMBHBs' high-energy neutrino and nano-Hz gravitational-wave emissions, the latter being the main target of pulsar timing arrays. Our results provide the first evidence of SMBHBs being high-energy neutrino emitters.