Search for Neutrino Emission from Hard X-Ray AGN with IceCube

Abstract Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are promising candidate sources of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, since they provide environments rich in matter and photon targets where cosmic-ray interactions may lead to the production of gamma rays and neutrinos. We searched for high-energy neutrino emission from AGN using the Swift-BAT Spectroscopic Survey catalog of hard X-ray sources and 12 yr of IceCube muon track data. First, upon performing a stacked search, no significant emission was found. Second, we searched for neutrinos from a list of 43 candidate sources and found an excess from the direction of two sources, the Seyfert galaxies NGC 1068 and NGC 4151. We observed NGC 1068 at flux <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ϕ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ν</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ν</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>¯</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> = <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>4.0</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.52</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.58</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>11</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> TeV −1 cm −2 s −1 normalized at 1 TeV, with a power-law spectral index γ = 3.10 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.22</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.26</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> , consistent with previous IceCube results. The observation of a neutrino excess from the direction of NGC 4151 is at a posttrial significance of 2.9 σ . If interpreted as an astrophysical signal, the excess observed from NGC 4151 corresponds to a flux <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ϕ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ν</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ν</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>¯</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> = <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>1.5</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.81</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.99</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>11</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> TeV −1 cm −2 s −1 normalized at 1 TeV and γ = 2.83 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.28</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.35</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> .

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Published
2025-03-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada94b
Citations
28
Primary Topic
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
52.37

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Search for Neutrino Emission from Hard X-Ray AGN with IceCube

S. N. Axani, L. Schumacher, L. Köpke, M. Baricevic et al.
28 citations
The Astrophysical Journal
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
52.37
article

Search for Neutrino Emission from Hard X-Ray AGN with IceCube

S. N. Axani, L. Schumacher, L. Köpke, M. Baricevic, M. Prado Rodriguez, J. Veitch-Michaelis, G. Roellinghoff, S. W. Barwick, M. Venugopal, G. M. Spiczak, M. Lamoureux, A. Novikov, Thien Nhan Chau, Spencer Griswold, Pranav Dave, Woosik Kang, I. Taboada, Daniel Salazar-Gallegos, S. R. Klein, Michael Campana, James DeLaunay, Oliver Gries, Frank Schröder, P. Zhelnin, Felix Schlüter, Delaney Butterfield, A. Ishihara, Christina Love, C. Girard-Carillo, W. G. Thompson, M. Ha Minh, C. H. Wiebusch, P. Desiati, Abdul Rehman, I. Martinez-Soler, C. De Clercq, John Evans, J. W. Lee, K. D. de Vries, R. Snihur, Alexander Sandrock, A. Terliuk, Axel Pontén, J. Saffer, J. Krishnamoorthi, Z. Rechav, C. Weaver, Yantao Liu, R. Bay, Hershal Pandya, C. Wendt, Ek Narayan Paudel, D. Vannerom, G. de Wasseige, A. Haungs, M. Dittmer, Erik Ganster, S. Hickford, S. Athanasiadou, Leonora Kardum, F. Varsi, J. Madsen, J. Vandenbroucke, J. P. Yanez, M. Liubarska, M. Vereecken, Colton Hill, Frederik Hermann Lauber, S. Böser, J. C. Díaz–Vélez, Richard Naab, Hrvoje Dujmović, Christoph Raab, J. V. Santen, Matheus Hostert, Miaochen Jin, A. A. Harnisch, P. Savina, Diyaselis Delgado, G. C. Hill, Ryan T. Burley, M. Weyrauch, A. Wang, C. Günther, J. M. Conrad, P. Eller, D. Tosi, J. Weldert, S. Yoshida, Julia Book, A. Hidvegi, D. F. Cowen, Aswathi Balagopal, Nils Heyer, S. Sarkar, A. R. Fazely, Finn Mayhew, Kaustav Dutta, Bennett Brinson, F. Halzen, B. J. P. Jones, Martin Wolf, S. Griffin, E. Bernardini, Y. Morii, J. V. Mead, J. Peterson, Alan Coleman, A. Medina, Matthias Thiesmeyer, P. Weigel, Oliver Janik, Agnieszka Leszczyńska, Maximilian Meier, Martina Karl, S. Rodan, Judith Schneider, Sharif El Mentawi, C. Pérez de los Heros, Cristina Lagunas Gualda, Darren Grant, S. Robertson, Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, T. Glüsenkamp, S. Fiedlschuster, C. Finley, C. Argüelles, P. Reichherzer, K. Hoshina, Kathrine Mørch Groth, Lucas Bloom, G. S. Japaridze, Z. Chen, Barbara Skrzypek, X. Bai, Gaurav Garg, K. Rawlins, M. Kowalski, E. Blaufuss, A. Weindl, M. Marsee, Claudio Kopper, Bob Oeyen, D. Chirkin, E. Kun, Vedant Basu, S. Toscano, Yarno Merckx, J. Vara, J. Rack-Helleis, Z. Márka, O. Botner, Donghwa Kang, I. Safa, Kirsten Tollefson, Kareem Ramadan Farrag, S. Ter–Antonyan, J. Böttcher, M. Stamatikos, Erin O’Sullivan, Paul Coppin, J. Hardin, S. Sclafani, Saskia Philippen, George C. Privon, Nora Valtonen-Mattila, Thomas Stuttard, A. Khatee Zathul, E. Lohfink, F. Bontempo, Sarah Mancina, J. Mitchell, Michael Kovacevich, Lukas Merten, T. Stezelberger, G. W. Sullivan, H. Erpenbeck, Y. Popovych, Jean Pierre Twagirayezu, T. Karg, U. Katz, R. W. Moore, Jakob Beise, Christian Haack, Akanksha Katil, Sharmistha Chattopadhyay, A. Wolf, A. Eimer, Simeon Bash, L. Heuermann, Alex Wen, L. Halve, Minhye Seo, P. Hatch, Francesco Lucarelli, Jeffrey Lazar, R. Hussain, A. Obertacke Pollmann, N. Park, J. S. Gallagher, J. Soedingrekso, A. Hallgren, William Luszczak, A. Noell, Aske Rosted, Ava Ghadimi, R. Procter-Murphy, Jannis Necker, M. Ackermann, W. Iwakiri, S. Schindler, Brian Clark, M. J. Larson, Perri Zilberman, A. Pizzuto, R. Morse, Yang Lyu, Abhishek Desai, Paras Koundal, Emre Burak Yildizci, K. Hanson, A. Domi, K. Meagher, R. Maruyama, Caterina Boscolo Meneguolo, Minjin Jeong, Vivian O'Dell, Jose Carpio, Tianlu Yuan, C. Glaser, S. Deng, S. BenZvi, E. Krupczak, J. Osborn, A. Franckowiak, T. Kozynets, L. Gerhardt, K. Noda, Massimiliano Lincetto, Neha Navnitkumar Lad, K. D. Hoffman, J. Brostean-Kaiser, K. Hultqvist, N. Whitehorn, C. Rott, W. Marie Sainte, G. K. Parker, Larissa Paul, R. Orsoe, M. A. DuVernois, A. Karle, Thomas Huber, N. Kurahashi, Anil Kumar, Gerrit Wrede, Y. Ashida, Hans Niederhausen, P. A. Evenson, D. Z. Besson, Y. Makino, W. Rhode, D. Ryckbosch, Alejandra Granados, Charlotte Benning, K. Andeen, D. B. Fox, Tomas Kontrimas, A. Diaz, Karlijn Kruiswijk, K. B. M. Mahn, Anatoli Fedynitch, Ali Kheirandish, L. Ruohan, K. Helbing, S. Mechbal, A. Connolly, T. Ehrhardt, M. Moulai, X. Kang, K. Upshaw, B. Schlüter, Silvia Latseva, D. Elsäesser, Dennis Soldin, M. Kauer, M. Jacquart, Jean-Marco Alameddine, A. Kappes, Frank McNally, J. Kiryluk, U. Naumann, T. Montaruli, Else Magnus, E. Ellinger, Elena Manao, J. Micallef, N. Kamp, Chiara Bellenghi, Philipp Fürst, J. J. Beatty, Benedikt Riedel, M. Nakos, M. Plum, Kayla Leonard DeHolton, B. Smithers, D. Kappesser, Ramesh Koirala, Pascal Gutjahr, Martin Unland Elorrieta, Rasha Abbasi, S. Seunarine, Sam Hori, Tista Mukherjee, G. H. Collin, Adam Rifaie, Lincoln Draper, Philipp Soldin, Leonhard Eidenschink, Pablo Correa, Giacomo Sommani, Szabolcs Márka, M. Jansson, C. Tönnis, M. Neumann, Alina Kochocki, Martin Rongen, Michael Handt, Akshima Negi, Z. Zhang, Mohammad Ful Hossain Seikh, Anuj Kumar Upadhyay, B. Pries, D. Veske, P. Sampathkumar, R. Turcotte, J. Savelberg, M. Ahlers, Leander Fischer, Kwok Lung Fan, D. J. Koskinen, Jonas Häußler, Mirco Huennefeld, Karolin Hymon, S. J. Gray, C. Spiering, C. Ha, C. Spannfellner, Jonas Hellrung, Stef Verpoest, J. Werthebach, Alexandra Trettin, J. L. Kelley, Simeon Reusch, R. Nagai, Summer Blot, H. Kolanoski, Ludwig Neste, Nick Schmeisser, A. Vijai, Lucas Witthaus, L. Ausborm, J. Hermannsgabner, Eliot Genton, Teresa Pernice, P. Sevle Myhr, Patrick Schaile, Martin Langgård Ravn, P. Dierichs, L. Lu, J. A. Aguilar, Sourav Sarkar, Nobuhiro Shimizu, Alfonso Garcia, Wenjie Hou, H. Hamdaoui, J. Becker Tjus, S. Goswami, Jessie Thwaites, J. Liao, C. Walck, S. Tilav, R. Young, D. Seckel, G. T. Przybylski, J. Adams, T. DeYoung, M. U. Nisa, H. Schieler, D. Berley, Ioana Caracas, Ioana Codrina Mariş, R. Shah, R. Engel, S. Fukami, D. R. Williams, S. Shefali, T. Stürwald, N. M. Amin, M. Silva, A. Olivas, J. Braun, K. Carloni, M. Ramirez-García, X. W. Xu, L. Brusa, A. Vaidyanathan, Melany Zimmerman, Manish Khanal, S. Choi, T. Stanev, Rebecca Corley, Nora Feigl, E. J. Roberts, J. G. Gonzalez, T. Schmidt, M. Schaufel, N. van Eijndhoven, M. Santander, T. Ruhe, E. Resconi, A. Sègaard
article en
28 citations

Abstract

Abstract Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are promising candidate sources of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, since they provide environments rich in matter and photon targets where cosmic-ray interactions may lead to the production of gamma rays and neutrinos. We searched for high-energy neutrino emission from AGN using the Swift-BAT Spectroscopic Survey catalog of hard X-ray sources and 12 yr of IceCube muon track data. First, upon performing a stacked search, no significant emission was found. Second, we searched for neutrinos from a list of 43 candidate sources and found an excess from the direction of two sources, the Seyfert galaxies NGC 1068 and NGC 4151. We observed NGC 1068 at flux <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ϕ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ν</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ν</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>¯</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> = <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>4.0</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.52</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.58</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>11</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> TeV −1 cm −2 s −1 normalized at 1 TeV, with a power-law spectral index γ = 3.10 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.22</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.26</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> , consistent with previous IceCube results. The observation of a neutrino excess from the direction of NGC 4151 is at a posttrial significance of 2.9 σ . If interpreted as an astrophysical signal, the excess observed from NGC 4151 corresponds to a flux <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ϕ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ν</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ν</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>¯</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> = <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>1.5</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.81</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.99</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>11</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> TeV −1 cm −2 s −1 normalized at 1 TeV and γ = 2.83 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.28</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.35</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> .

The Astrophysical JournalVol. 981(2)
National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nvidia, Michigan State University, Villum Fonden, Polarforskningssekretariatet, Marquette University, Western Canada Research Grid, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, National Research Foundation of Korea, Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse, Santen, Vetenskapsrådet, RWTH Aachen University, Chiba University, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics, Alliance de recherche numérique du Canada, College of Engineering, Michigan State University, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Marsden Fund, Institute for Global Prominent Research, Chiba University, Office of Polar Programs, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
52.37
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.