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Register a new userSoft MeV Gamma-Ray Background from Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei and Connection to the Origin of IceCube PeV Neutrinos
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Low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LL AGNs) have radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs), where thermal electrons naturally emit not only synchrotron photons but also soft gamma rays via the Comptonization of their synchrotron photons. We find that without any nonthermal electron population, these upscattered photons from LL AGNs naturally account for the MeV gamma-ray background, whose origin has been a mystery. The model also allows proton acceleration via turbulence or reconnections, producing high-energy neutrinos via hadronuclear interactions. We demonstrate that our RIAF model can simultaneously reproduce the soft (MeV) gamma-ray and high-energy (PeV) neutrino backgrounds. The proposed model is consistent with the latest x-ray observations of nearby LL AGNs and testable by future MeV gamma-ray telescopes.
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Mysteries about the origin of high-energy cosmic neutrinos have deepened by the recent IceCube measurement of a large diffuse flux in the 10-100 TeV range. Based on the standard disk-corona picture of active galactic nuclei (AGN), we present a phenomenological model enabling us to systematically calculate the spectral sequence of multimessenger emission from the AGN coronae. We show that protons in the coronal plasma can be stochastically accelerated up to PeV energies by plasma turbulence, and find that the model explains the large diffuse flux of medium-energy neutrinos if the cosmic rays carry only a few percent of the thermal energy. We find that the Bethe-Heitler process plays a crucial role in connecting these neutrinos and cascaded MeV gamma rays, and point out that the gamma-ray flux can even be enhanced by the reacceleration of secondary pairs. Critical tests of the model are given by its prediction that a significant fraction of the MeV gamma-ray background correlates with about 10 TeV neutrinos, and nearby Seyfert galaxies including NGC 1068 are promising targets for IceCube, KM3Net, IceCube-Gen2, and future MeV gamma-ray telescopes.
The majority of the activity around nearby (z ~ 0) supermassive black holes is found in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGN), the most of them being classified as low ionization nuclear emission regions. Although these sources are well studied from radio up to X-rays, they are poorly understood in gamma-rays. In this work we take advantage of the all sky-surveying capabilities of the Large Area Telescope on board Fermi Gamma ray Space Telescope to study the whole Palomar sample of LLAGN in gamma-rays. Precisely, the four radio-brightest LLAGN in the sample are identified as significant gamma-ray emitters, all of which are recognized as powerful Fanaroff-Riley I galaxies. These results suggest that the presence of powerful radio jets is of substantial importance for observing a significant gamma-ray counterpart even if these jets are misaligned with respect to the line of sight. We also find that most of the X-ray-brightest LLAGN do not have a significant gamma-ray and strong radio emission, suggesting that the X-rays come mainly from the accretion flow in these cases. A detailed analysis of the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of NGC 315 and NGC 4261, both detected in gamma-rays, is provided where we make a detailed comparison between the predicted hadronic gamma-ray emission from a radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) and the gamma-ray emission from a leptonic jet-dominated synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model. Both SEDs are better described by the SSC model while the RIAF fails to explain the gamma-ray observations.
We have examined ROSAT soft X-ray observations of a complete, distance-limited sample of Seyfert and LINER galaxies. X-ray data are available for 46 out of 60 such objects which lie within a hemisphere of radius 18 Mpc. We have constructed radial profiles of the nuclear sources in order to characterize their spatial extent and, in some cases, to help constrain the amount of flux associated with a nuclear point source. PSPC data from ROSAT have been used to explore the spectral characteristics of the objects with sufficient numbers of detected counts. Based on the typical spectral parameters of these sources, we have estimated the luminosities of the weaker sources in the sample. We then explore the relationship between the soft X-ray and H alpha luminosities of the observed objects; these quantities are correlated for higher-luminosity AGNs. We find a weak correlation at low luminosities as well, and have used this relationship to predict L_X for the 14 objects in our sample that lack X-ray data. Using the results of the spatial and spectral analyses, we have compared the X-ray properties of Seyferts and LINERs, finding no striking differences between the two classes of objects. However, both types of objects often exhibit significant amounts of extended emission, which could minimize the appearance of differences in their nuclear properties. The soft X-ray characteristics of the type 1 and type 2 active galaxies in the sample are also discussed. We then compute the local X-ray volume emissivity of low-luminosity Seyferts and LINERs and investigate their contribution to the cosmic X-ray background. The 0.5-2.0 keV volume emissivity of 2.2e38 ergs/s/Mpc^3 we obtain for our sample suggests that low-luminosity AGNs produce at least 9% of the soft X-ray background.
We calculate the diffuse $gamma$-ray emission due to the population of misaligned AGN (MAGN) unresolved by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the {it Fermi} Gamma-ray Space Telescope ({it Fermi}). A correlation between the $gamma$-ray luminosity and the radio-core luminosity is established and demonstrated to be physical by statistical tests, as well as compatible with upper limits based on {it Fermi}-LAT data for a large sample of radio-loud MAGN. We constrain the derived $gamma$-ray luminosity function by means of the source count distribution of the MAGN detected by the {it Fermi}-LAT. We finally estimate the diffuse $gamma$-ray flux due to the whole MAGN population which ranges from 10% up to nearly the entire measured Isotropic Gamma-Ray Background (IGRB). We evaluate also the room left to galactic DM at high latitudes ($>10^circ$), by taking into account the results on the MAGN together with the other significant galactic and extragalactic $gamma$-rays emitting sources.
Low luminosity active galactic nuclei are more abundant and closer to us than the luminous ones but harder to explore as they are faint. We have selected the four sources NGC 315, NGC 4261, NGC 1275, and NGC 4486, which have been detected in gamma rays byFermi-LAT. We have compiled their long-term radio, optical, X-ray data from different telescopes, analysed XMM-Newton data for NGC 4486, XMM-Newton and Swift data for NGC 315. We have analysed the Fermi-LAT data collected over the period of 2008 to 2020 for all of them. Electrons are assumed to be accelerated to relativistic energies in sub-parsec scale jets, which radiate by synchrotron and synchrotron self-Compton emission covering radio to gamma-ray energies. This model can fit most of the multi-wavelength data points of the four sources. However, the gamma-ray data points from NGC 315 and NGC 4261 can be well fitted only up to 1.6 GeV and 0.6 GeV, respectively in this model. This motivates us to find out the origin of the higher energy {gamma}-rays detected from these sources. Kilo-parsec scale jets have been observed previously from these sources in radio and X-ray frequencies. If we assume {gamma}-rays are also produced in kilo-parsec scale jets of these sources from inverse Compton scattering of starlight photons by ultra-relativistic electrons, then it is possible to fit the gamma-ray data at higher energies. Our result also suggests that strong host galaxy emission is required to produce GeV radiation from kilo-parsec scale jets.
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