Interpretation of the Observed Neutrino Emission from Three Tidal Disruption Events

Three Tidal Disruption Event candidates (AT2019 dsg , AT2019 fdr , and AT2019 aalc ) have been associated with high-energy astrophysical neutrinos in multimessenger follow-ups. In all cases, the neutrino observation occurred ${ \mathcal O }(100)$ days after the maximum of the optical-ultraviolet (OU...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Walter Winter, Cecilia Lunardini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2023-01-01
Series:The Astrophysical Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acbe9e
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Summary:Three Tidal Disruption Event candidates (AT2019 dsg , AT2019 fdr , and AT2019 aalc ) have been associated with high-energy astrophysical neutrinos in multimessenger follow-ups. In all cases, the neutrino observation occurred ${ \mathcal O }(100)$ days after the maximum of the optical-ultraviolet (OUV) luminosity. We discuss unified fully time-dependent interpretations of the neutrino signals where the neutrino delays are not a statistical effect, but rather the consequence of a physical scale of the post-disruption system. Noting that X-ray flares and infrared (IR) dust echoes have been observed in all cases, we consider three models in which quasi-isotropic neutrino emission is due to the interactions of accelerated protons of moderate, medium, and ultra-high energies with X-rays, OUV, and IR photons, respectively. We find that the neutrino time delays can be well described in the X-ray model assuming magnetic confinement of protons in a calorimetric approach if the unobscured X-ray luminosity is roughly constant over time, and in the IR model, where the delay is directly correlated with the time evolution of the echo luminosity (for which a model is developed here). The OUV model exhibits the highest neutrino production efficiency. In all three models, the highest neutrino fluence is predicted for AT2019 aalc , due to its high estimated supermassive black hole mass and low redshift. All models result in diffuse neutrino fluxes that are consistent with observations.
ISSN:1538-4357