Multimessenger observations of counterparts to IceCube-190331A

Felicia Krauß, Emily Calamari, Azadeh Keivani, Alexis Coleiro, Phil A. Evans, Derek B. Fox, Jamie A. Kennea, Peter Mészáros, Kohta Murase, Thomas D. Russell, Marcos Santander, Aaron Tohuvavohu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

High-energy neutrinos are a promising tool for identifying astrophysical sources of high and ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Prospects of detecting neutrinos at high energies (≳TeV) from blazars have been boosted after the recent association of IceCube-170922A and TXS 0506+056. We investigate the high-energy neutrino, IceCube-190331A, a high-energy starting event (HESE) with a high likelihood of being astrophysical in origin. We initiated a Swift/XRT and UVOT tiling mosaic of the neutrino localization and followed up with ATCA radio observations, compiling a multiwavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) for the most likely source of origin. NuSTAR observations of the neutrino location and a nearby X-ray source were also performed. We find two promising counterpart in the 90 per cent confidence localization region and identify the brightest as the most likely counterpart. However, no Fermi/LAT γ-ray source and no prompt Swift/BAT source is consistent with the neutrino event. At this point, it is unclear whether any of the counterparts produced IceCube-190331A. We note that the Helix Nebula is also consistent with the position of the neutrino event and we calculate that associated particle acceleration processes cannot produce the required energies to generate a high-energy HESE neutrino.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2553-2561
Number of pages9
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume497
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2020

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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