Active Galactic Nuclei as high-energy neutrino sources
Filippo D'Ammando
INAF-IRA Bologna
astro-ph.HE, astro-ph.GA
Submitted: 2026-06-29
Comments: Invited review article for The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review. Accepted for publication. 59 pages, 25 figures
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: Identifying the sources of the high-energy astrophysical neutrinos has been one of the main topics in astrophysics since the first observation of high-energy neutrinos by the IceCube Neutrino
Terminology
Abstract
Identifying the sources of the high-energy astrophysical neutrinos has been one of the main topics in astrophysics since the first observation of high-energy neutrinos by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are sources of high-energy gamma-rays and are considered to be promising candidates to be sources of high-energy neutrinos and ultra-high energy cosmic rays as well. However, several studies suggest that the neutrino emission from the gamma-ray blazar population only accounts for a small fraction of the total astrophysical neutrino flux. We present and discuss recent results on the search for correlations between astrophysical neutrinos and both gamma-ray and radio bright AGN. The IceCube Collaboration has reported high-energy neutrino events that may come from both the radio-loud AGN TXS 0506+056 and the radio-quiet AGN NGC 1068. Other cases of possible associations between high-energy neutrino events and individual blazars were claimed with controversial results. We discuss the properties of these sources together with the different neutrino production mechanisms proposed for those sources. Finally, we outline future prospects in the field, focusing on remaining open questions, the development of upcoming neutrino facilities, and the evolving multi-frequency landscape within the multi-messenger era.
Sources
- All-sky search for time-integrated neutrino emission from astrophysical sources with 7 years of IceCube data
- The IceCube Realtime Alert System
- Time-integrated Neutrino Source Searches with 10 years of IceCube Data
- IceCube-Gen2: The Window to the Extreme Universe
- The Science of the Einstein Telescope
- Search for multi-flare neutrino emissions in 10 years of IceCube data from a catalog of sources
- Improved Characterization of the Astrophysical Muon-Neutrino Flux with 9.5 Years of IceCube Data
- Search for correlations of high-energy neutrinos detected in IceCube with radio-bright AGN and gamma-ray emission from blazars
- IceCat-1: the IceCube Event Catalog of Alert Tracks
- Probing the connection between IceCube neutrinos and MOJAVE AGN
- IceCube Search for Neutrino Emission from X-ray Bright Seyfert Galaxies
- Evidence for neutrino emission from X-ray Bright Seyfert Galaxies in the Southern Hemisphere using Enhanced Starting Track Events with IceCube
- Observation of the Crab Nebula with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
- Prompt Searches for Very-High-Energy {\gamma}-Ray Counterparts to IceCube Astrophysical Neutrino Alerts
- Constraints on gamma-ray and neutrino emission from NGC 1068 with the MAGIC telescopes
- Investigating the blazar TXS 0506+056 through sharp multi-wavelength eyes during 2017-2019
- Letter of Intent for KM3NeT 2.0
- On the potential cosmogenic origin of the ultra-high-energy event KM3-230213A
- ANTARES: the first undersea neutrino telescope
- Design and Sensitivity of the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G)
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