Multimessenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A

Authors

M. G. Aartsen, University of Canterbury
M. Ackermann, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
J. Adams, University of Canterbury
J. A. Aguilar, Université Libre de Bruxelles
M. Ahlers, Niels Bohr Institute
M. Ahrens, Stockholms universitet
I. Al Samarai, Université de Genève
D. Altmann, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
K. Andeen, Marquette University
T. Anderson, Pennsylvania State University
I. Ansseau, Université Libre de Bruxelles
G. Anton, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
C. Argüelles, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
J. Auffenberg, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen
S. Axani, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
H. Bagherpour, University of Canterbury
X. Bai, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
J. P. Barron, University of Alberta
S. W. Barwick, University of California, Irvine
V. Baum, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
R. Bay, University of California, Berkeley
J. J. Beatty, The Ohio State University
J. Becker Tjus, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum
K. H. Becker, Bergische Universität Wuppertal
S. Benzvi, University of Rochester
D. Berley, University of Maryland, College Park
E. Bernardini, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
D. Z. Besson, University of Kansas
G. Binder, University of California, Berkeley
D. Bindig, Bergische Universität Wuppertal
E. Blaufuss, University of Maryland, College Park
S. Blot, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
C. Bohm, Stockholms universitet

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-13-2018

Abstract

Previous detections of individual astrophysical sources of neutrinos are limited to the Sun and the supernova 1987A, whereas the origins of the diffuse flux of high-energy cosmic neutrinos remain unidentified. On 22 September 2017, we detected a high-energy neutrino, IceCube-170922A, with an energy of e290 tera-electron volts. Its arrival direction was consistent with the location of a known g-ray blazar, TXS 0506+056, observed to be in a flaring state. An extensive multiwavelength campaign followed, ranging from radio frequencies to g-rays. These observations characterize the variability and energetics of the blazar and include the detection of TXS 0506+056 in very-high-energy g-rays. This observation of a neutrino in spatial coincidence with a g-ray-emitting blazar during an active phase suggests that blazars may be a source of high-energy neutrinos.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Science

Recommended Citation

Aartsen, M., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J., Ahlers, M., Ahrens, M., Al Samarai, I., Altmann, D., Andeen, K., Anderson, T., Ansseau, I., Anton, G., Argüelles, C., Auffenberg, J., Axani, S., Bagherpour, H., Bai, X., Barron, J., Barwick, S., Baum, V., Bay, R., Beatty, J., Becker Tjus, J., Becker, K., Benzvi, S., Berley, D., Bernardini, E., Besson, D., Binder, G., Bindig, D., Blaufuss, E., Blot, S., & Bohm, C. (2018). Multimessenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A. Science, 361 (6398) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat1378