No Arabic abstract
The potential association between the blazar TXS 0506+056 and the neutrino event IceCube-170922A provides a unique opportunity to study the possible physical connection between the high-energy photons and neutrinos. We explore the correlated electromagnetic and neutrino emissions of blazar TXS 0506+056 by a self-consistent leptonic-hadronic model, taking into account particle stochastic acceleration and all relevant radiative processes self-consistently. The electromagnetic and neutrino spectra of blazar TXS 0506+056 are reproduced by the proton synchrotron and hybrid leptonic-hadronic models based on the proton-photon interactions. It is found that the hybrid leptonic-hadronic model can be used to better explain the observed X-ray and $gamma$-ray spectra of blazar TXS 0506+056 than the proton synchrotron model. Moreover, the predicted neutrino spectrum of the hybrid leptonic-hadronic model is closer to the observed one compared to the proton synchrotron model. We suggest that the hybrid leptonic-hadronic model is more favored if the neutrino event IceCube-170922A is associated with the blazar TXS 0506+056.
While active galactic nuclei with relativistic jets have long been prime candidates for the origin of extragalactic cosmic rays and neutrinos, the BL Lac object TXS 0506+056 is the first astrophysical source observed to be associated with some confidence ($sim 3sigma$) with a high-energy neutrino, IceCube-170922A, detected by the IceCube Observatory. The source was found to be active in high-energy gamma-rays with Fermi-LAT and in very-high-energy gamma-rays with the MAGIC telescopes. To consistently explain the observed neutrino and multi-wavelength electromagnetic emission of TXS 0506+056, we investigate in detail single-zone models of lepto-hadronic emission, assuming co-spatial acceleration of electrons and protons in the jet, and synchrotron photons from the electrons as targets for photo-hadronic neutrino production. The parameter space concerning the physical conditions of the emission region and particle populations is extensively explored for scenarios where the gamma-rays are dominated by either 1) proton synchrotron emission or 2) synchrotron-self-Compton emission, with a subdominant but non-negligible contribution from photo-hadronic cascades in both cases. We find that the latter can be compatible with the neutrino observations, while the former is strongly disfavoured due to the insufficient neutrino production rate.
TXS 0506+056 is a blazar that has been recently identified as the counterpart of the neutrino event IceCube-170922A. Understanding blazar type of TXS 0506+056 is important to constrain the neutrino emission mechanism, but the blazar nature of TXS 0506+056 is still uncertain. As an attempt to understand the nature of TXS 0506+056, we report the medium-band observation results of TXS 0506+056, covering the wavelength range of 0.575 to 1.025 $mu$m. The use of the medium-band filters allow us to examine if there were any significant changes in its spectral shapes over the course of one month and give a better constraint on the peak frequency of synchrotron radiation with quasi-simultaneous datasets. The peak frequency is found to be $10^{14.28}$ Hz, and our analysis shows that TXS 0506+056 is not an outlier from the blazar sequence. As a way to determine the blazar type, we also analyzed if TXS 0506+056 is bluer-when-brighter (BL Lac type and some flat spectrum radio quasars, FSRQs) or redder-when-brighter (found only in some FSRQs). Even though we detect no significant variability in the spectral shape larger than observational error during our medium-band observation period, the comparison with a dataset taken at 2012 shows a possible redder-when-brighter behavior of FSRQs. Our results demonstrate that medium-band observations with small to moderate-sized telescopes can be an effective way to trace the spectral evolution of transients such as TXS 0506+056.
The IceCube collaboration reported a $sim 3.5sigma$ excess of $13pm5$ neutrino events in the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+56 during a $sim$6 month period in 2014-2015, as well as the ($sim3sigma$) detection of a high-energy muon neutrino during an electromagnetic flare in 2017. We explore the possibility that the 2014-2015 neutrino excess and the 2017 multi-messenger flare are both explained in a common physical framework that relies on the emergence of a relativistic neutral beam in the blazar jet due to interactions of accelerated cosmic rays (CRs) with photons. We demonstrate that the neutral beam model provides an explanation for the 2014-2015 neutrino excess without violating X-ray and $gamma$-ray constraints, and also yields results consistent with the detection of one high-energy neutrino during the 2017 flare. If both neutrino associations with TXS 05065+056 are real, our model requires that (i) the composition of accelerated CRs is light, with a ratio of helium nuclei to protons $gtrsim5$, (ii) a luminous external photon field ($sim 10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$) variable (on year-long timescales) is present, and (iii) the CR injection luminosity as well as the properties of the dissipation region (i.e., Lorentz factor, magnetic field, and size) vary on year-long timescales.
The IceCube instrument detected a high-energy cosmic neutrino event on 2017 September 22 (IceCube_170922A, IceCube Collaboration 2018), which the electromagnetic follow-up campaigns associated with the flaring $gamma$-ray blazar TXS 0506$+$056 (e.g., Padovani et al., 2018). We investigated the mid-infrared variability of the source by using the available single exposure data of the WISE satellite at $3.4$ and $4.6mu$m. TXS 0506$+$056 experienced a $sim 30$% brightening in both of these bands a few days prior to the neutrino event. Additional intraday infrared variability can be detected in 2010. Similar behaviour seen previously in $gamma$-ray bright radio-loud AGN has been explained by their jet emission (e.g., Jiang et al. 2012).
Motivated by the observation of a $>290$ TeV muon neutrino by IceCube, coincident with a $sim$6 month-long $gamma$-ray flare of the blazar TXS 0506+056, and an archival search which revealed $13 pm 5$ further, lower-energy neutrinos in the direction of the source in 2014-2015, we discuss the likely contribution of blazars to the diffuse high-energy neutrino intensity, the implications for neutrino emission from TXS 0506+056 based on multi-wavelength observations of the source, and a multi-zone model that allows for sufficient neutrino emission so as to reconcile the multi-wavelength cascade constraints with the neutrino emission seen by IceCube in the direction of TXS 0506+056.