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1. TeV Neutrinos and Hard X-Rays from Relativistic Reconnection in the Corona of NGC 1068

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad192b  

   Fiorillo, Damiano F. G. ; Petropoulou, Maria ; Comisso, Luca ; Peretti, Enrico ; Sironi, Lorenzo ( January 2024 , The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   The recent discovery of astrophysical neutrinos from the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068 suggests the presence of nonthermal protons within a compact “coronal” region close to the central black hole. The acceleration mechanism of these nonthermal protons remains elusive. We show that a large-scale magnetic reconnection layer, of the order of a few gravitational radii, may provide such a mechanism. In such a scenario, rough energy equipartition between magnetic fields, X-ray photons, and nonthermal protons is established in the reconnection region. Motivated by recent 3D particle-in-cell simulations of relativistic reconnection, we assume that the spectrum of accelerated protons is a broken power law, with the break energy being constrained by energy conservation (i.e., the energy density of accelerated protons is at most comparable to the magnetic energy density). The proton spectrum is${\mathit{dn}}_p/{\mathit{dE}}_p\propto E_p^{-1}$below the break and${\mathit{dn}}_p/{\mathit{dE}}_p\propto E_p^{-s}$above the break, with IceCube neutrino observations suggestings≃ 3. Protons above the break lose most of their energy within the reconnection layer via photohadronic collisions with the coronal X-rays, producing a neutrino signal in good agreement with the recent observations. Gamma rays injected in photohadronic collisions are cascaded to lower energies, sustaining the population of electron–positron pairs that makes the corona moderately Compton thick.

    

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2. Reconstructing the neutrino energy for in-ice radio detectors: A study for the Radio Neutrino Observatory Greenland (RNO-G)

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10034-4  

   Aguilar, J. A. ; Allison, P. ; Beatty, J. J. ; Bernhoff, H. ; Besson, D. ; Bingefors, N. ; Botner, O. ; Bouma, S. ; Buitink, S. ; Carter, K. ; et al ( February 2022 , The European Physical Journal C)

   Since summer 2021, the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G) is searching for astrophysical neutrinos at energies$${>10}$$$>10$ PeV by detecting the radio emission from particle showers in the ice around Summit Station, Greenland. We present an extensive simulation study that shows how RNO-G will be able to measure the energy of such particle cascades, which will in turn be used to estimate the energy of the incoming neutrino that caused them. The location of the neutrino interaction is determined using the differences in arrival times between channels and the electric field of the radio signal is reconstructed using a novel approach based on Information Field Theory. Based on these properties, the shower energy can be estimated. We show that this method can achieve an uncertainty of 13% on the logarithm of the shower energy after modest quality cuts and estimate how this can constrain the energy of the neutrino. The method presented in this paper is applicable to all similar radio neutrino detectors, such as the proposed radio array of IceCube-Gen2.

    

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3. Borexino’s search for low-energy neutrinos associated with gravitational wave events from GWTC-3 database: Borexino Collaboration

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11688-4  

   Basilico, D. ; Bellini, G. ; Benziger, J. ; Biondi, R. ; Caccianiga, B. ; Calaprice, F. ; Caminata, A. ; Chepurnov, A. ; D’Angelo, D. ; Derbin, A. ; et al ( June 2023 , The European Physical Journal C)

   The search for neutrino events in correlation with gravitational wave (GW) events for three observing runs (O1, O2 and O3) from 09/2015 to 03/2020 has been performed using the Borexino data-set of the same period. We have searched for signals of neutrino-electron scattering and inverse beta-decay (IBD) within a time window of$$\pm \, 1000$$$\pm 1000$ s centered at the detection moment of a particular GW event. The search was done with three visible energy thresholds of 0.25, 0.8 and 3.0 MeV. Two types of incoming neutrino spectra were considered: the mono-energetic line and the supernova-like spectrum. GW candidates originated by merging binaries of black holes (BHBH), neutron stars (NSNS) and neutron star and black hole (NSBH) were analyzed separately. Additionally, the subset of most intensive BHBH mergers at closer distances and with larger radiative mass than the rest was considered. In total, follow-ups of 74 out of 93 gravitational waves reported in the GWTC-3 catalog were analyzed and no statistically significant excess over the background was observed. As a result, the strongest upper limits on GW-associated neutrino and antineutrino fluences for all flavors ($$\nu _e, \nu _\mu , \nu _\tau $$${\nu }_e,{\nu }_{\mu },{\nu }_{\tau }$) at the level$$10^9{-}10^{15}~\textrm{cm}^{-2}\,\textrm{GW}^{-1}$$${10}^9-{10}^{15}{\text{cm}}^{-2}{\text{GW}}^{-1}$have been obtained in the 0.5–5 MeV neutrino energy range.

    

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4. Search for a high-mass dimuon resonance produced in association with b quark jets at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2023)043  

   Hayrapetyan, A. ; Tumasyan, A. ; Adam, W. ; Andrejkovic, J. W. ; Bergauer, T. ; Chatterjee, S. ; Damanakis, K. ; Dragicevic, M. ; Escalante Del Valle, A. ; Hussain, P. S. ; et al ( October 2023 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A search for high-mass dimuon resonance production in association with one or more b quark jets is presented. The study uses proton-proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb⁻¹at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Model-independent limits are derived on the number of signal events with exactly one or more than one b quark jet. Results are also interpreted in a lepton-flavor-universal model with Z′ boson couplings to a bb quark pair (g_b), an sb quark pair (g_bδ_bs), and any same-flavor charged lepton (g_ℓ) or neutrino pair (g_ν), with|g_ν|=|g_ℓ|. For a Z′ boson with a mass$$ {m}_{{\textrm{Z}}^{\prime }} $$$m_{Z^{\prime }}$= 350 GeV (2 TeV) and|δ_bs|< 0.25, the majority of the parameter space with 0.0057 <|g_ℓ|< 0.35 (0.25 <|g_ℓ|< 0.43) and 0.0079 < |g_b| < 0.46 (0.34 < |g_b| < 0.57) is excluded at 95% confidence level. Finally, constraints are set on a Z′ model with parameters consistent with low-energy b → sℓℓmeasurements. In this scenario, most of the allowed parameter space is excluded for a Z′ boson with 350 <$$ {m}_{{\textrm{Z}}^{\prime }} $$$m_{Z^{\prime }}$< 500 GeV, while the constraints are less stringent for higher$$ {m}_{{\textrm{Z}}^{\prime }} $$$m_{Z^{\prime }}$hypotheses. This is the first dedicated search at the LHC for a high-mass dimuon resonance produced in association with multiple b quark jets, and the constraints obtained on models with this signature are the most stringent to date.

    

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5. Limits on Astrophysical Antineutrinos with the KamLAND Experiment

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac32c1  

   Abe, S. ; Asami, S. ; Gando, A. ; Gando, Y. ; Gima, T. ; Goto, A. ; Hachiya, T. ; Hata, K. ; Hayashida, S. ; Hosokawa, K. ; et al ( January 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   We report on a search for electron antineutrinos (${\overline{\nu }}_e$) from astrophysical sources in the neutrino energy range 8.3–30.8 MeV with the KamLAND detector. In an exposure of 6.72 kton-year of the liquid scintillator, we observe 18 candidate events via the inverse beta decay reaction. Although there is a large background uncertainty from neutral current atmospheric neutrino interactions, we find no significant excess over background model predictions. Assuming several supernova relic neutrino spectra, we give upper flux limits of 60–110 cm⁻²s⁻¹(90% confidence level, CL) in the analysis range and present a model-independent flux. We also set limits on the annihilation rates for light dark matter pairs to neutrino pairs. These data improve on the upper probability limit of⁸B solar neutrinos converting into${\overline{\nu }}_e$,$P_{{\nu }_e\to {\overline{\nu }}_e}<3.5\times {10}^{-5}$(90% CL) assuming an undistorted${\overline{\nu }}_e$shape. This corresponds to a solar${\overline{\nu }}_e$flux of 60 cm⁻²s⁻¹(90% CL) in the analysis energy range.

    

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