Neutrino flares of radio blazars observed from TeV to PeV

Abstract

ABSTRACT Radio blazars have been linked both to individual high-energy neutrino events and to excesses in likelihood sky maps constructed from lower-energy neutrino data. However, the exact mechanism by which neutrinos are produced in these sources is still unknown. Here, we demonstrate that IceCube neutrinos with energies over 200 TeV, which were previously associated with bright radio blazars, are significantly more likely to be accompanied by flares of lower-energy events, compared to those lacking blazar counterparts. The parsec-scale core radio flux density of blazars, positioned within the error regions of energetic events, is strongly correlated with the likelihood of a day-scale lower-energy neutrino flare in directional and temporal coincidence with the high-energy event, reported by IceCube. The probability of a chance correlation is 3.6 × 10−4. This confirms the neutrino-blazar connection in a new and independent way, and provides valuable clues to understanding the origin of astrophysical neutrinos.