Theoretical interpretation of the observed neutrino emission from Tidal Disruption Events

Abstract

The observation of a neutrino at IceCube in association with the Tidal Disruption Event (TDE) AT2019dsg, has suggested TDEs as a new class of sources of astrophysical neutrinos. We present a model of this multi-messenger observation in a jetted concordance scenario, where the neutrino production is directly linked to the observed X-rays, and the timing of the neutrino observation (about 150 days post peak) can be naturally described. We briefly discuss the implications of our model for future neutrino-TDE associations.

Tidal Disruption Events and High-energy Neutrinos

“…These are checked to see whether they belong to populations that have been proposed as possible cosmic-ray and neutrino sources. Such populations include Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) [32], supernovae with evidence of circumstellar medium interaction [33] or choked jets [34], Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) [35] and in particular blazars [36], and TDEs [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. Right: Properties of the neutrinos observed in that period, from [28].…”

“…TDEs have been long-predicted to be sources of cosmic rays and neutrinos [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47], and were thus always a prime target of our ZTF neutrino follow-up program [10]. However, in light of the identification of AT2019dsg as a probable neutrino source, numerous models have been updated to reflect our increased knowledge of TDEs and their observational properties.…”

Tidal Disruption Events and High-Energy Neutrinos

“…i Relativistic jets [44,45,47] ii The accretion disk [43] iii The disk corona [46] iv The wind/outflow [46] In general, models agree that the conditions appear consistent with requirements for both PeV neutrino production, and the subsequent detection of a neutrino alert from such a TDE with IceCube. The observations thus suggest that the TDE population contributes to the astrophysical neutrino flux, though the ZTF observations would be compatible with a contribution as small as 2% of the astrophysical neutrino alerts [28].…”

“…These are checked to see whether they belong to populations that have been proposed as possible cosmic-ray and neutrino sources. Such populations include Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) [32], supernovae with evidence of circumstellar medium interaction [33] or choked jets [34], Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) [35] and in particular blazars [36], and TDEs [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. A full breakdown of the ZTF neutrino follow-up program as of February 2020 is given in Figure 5.…”

“…TDEs have been long-predicted to be sources of cosmic rays and neutrinos [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47], and were thus always a prime target of our ZTF neutrino follow-up program [10]. However, in light of the identification of AT2019dsg as a probable neutrino source, numerous models have been updated to reflect our increased knowledge of TDEs and their observational properties.…”