Characterizing Candidate Blazar Counterparts of the Ultra-High-Energy Event KM3-230213A
KM3NeT Collaboration, MessMapp Group, LAT Collaboration, m Telescope Group, SVOM Collaboration, P. Baldini, J. Buchner, A. K. Erkenov, N. Globus, A. Merloni, A. Paggi, A. V. Popkov, D. Porquet, M. Salvato, Y. V. Sotnikova, P. A. Voitsik
astro-ph.HE
Submitted: 2025-11-02
Comments: 45 pages, 25 figures
Journal ref: AJ 172 (2026) 139
Project page: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The gist: High-energy astrophysical neutrinos serve as crucial messengers for understanding hadronic acceleration processes and identifying the origins of cosmic rays, with blazars among the most promising
Terminology
Abstract
High-energy astrophysical neutrinos serve as crucial messengers for understanding hadronic acceleration processes and identifying the origins of cosmic rays, with blazars among the most promising neutrino sources. The KM3NeT experiment reported the detection of an ultra-high-energy neutrino with an energy estimate of 220 PeV, the most energetic yet observed. The neutrino arrival direction has a 99% confidence region of 3 radius centered at RA 94.3, Dec-7.8 (J2000). In this work, seventeen candidate blazars located within this region are identified. Comprehensive new observations and archival data analysis for these sources are presented. The study provides a complete multiwavelength coverage across radio, optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray bands, including proprietary data and dedicated follow-up observations. This study highlights flaring behavior in several candidate counterparts. One object exhibits a radio flare coinciding with the neutrino arrival time, with a pre-trial chance probability of 0.26%. Another candidate displays a rising trend in X-ray flux in a one-year window around the neutrino arrival time, while a third undergoes a gamma-ray flare during the same period. Based on the observational findings here presented, while none of these candidates can conclusively be linked to the neutrino, the implications of a possible blazar origin for the KM3NeT event are discussed.
Sources
- Search for neutrino emission from hard X-ray AGN with IceCube
- Constraining gamma-ray burst parameters with the first ultra-high energy neutrino event KM3-230213A
- KM3NeT Constraint on Lorentz-Violating Superluminal Neutrino Velocity
- On the Potential Galactic Origin of the Ultra-High-Energy Event KM3-230213A
- Evaluation of the upgraded 3-inch Hamamatsu photomultiplier for the KM3NeT Neutrino Telescope
- Pass 8: Toward the Full Realization of the Fermi-LAT Scientific Potential
- Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog Data Release 4 (4FGL-DR4)
- Fermi-LAT improved Pass~8 event selection
- Extragalactic neutrino factories
- rPICARD: A CASA-based Calibration Pipeline for VLBI Data. Calibration and imaging of 7 mm VLBA observations of the AGN jet in M87
- Can a gamma-ray dim radio blazar produce a 200-PeV neutrino? The case of PMN J0606 - 0724 and KM3-230213A
- The ultra-high-energy event KM3-230213A within the global neutrino landscape
- Association of the IceCube neutrinos with blazars in the CGRaBS sample
- The ROSAT All-Sky Survey Bright Source Catalogue
- The Deep and Transient Universe in the SVOM Era: New Challenges and Opportunities - Scientific prospects of the SVOM mission
- An Accretion Flare Interpretation for the Ultra-High-Energy Neutrino Event KM3-230213A
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