AGILE detection of gamma-ray sources coincident with cosmic neutrino events

Authors :: Lucarelli, F.
Tavani, M.
Piano, G.
Bulgarelli, A.
Donnarumma, I.
Verrecchia, F.
Pittori, C.
Antonelli, L. A.
Argan, A.
Barbiellini, G.
Caraveo, P.
Cardillo, M.
Cattaneo, P. W.
Chen, A.
Colafrancesco, S.
Costa, E.
Del Monte, E.
Di Cocco, G.
Ferrari, A.
Fioretti, V.
Galli, M.
Giommi, P.
Giuliani, A.
Lipari, P.
Longo, F.
Mereghetti, S.
Morselli, A.
Paoletti, F.
Parmiggiani, N.
Pellizzoni, A.
Picozza, P.
Pilia, M.
Rappoldi, A.
Trois, A.
Ursi, A.
Vercellone, S.
Vittorini, V.
Publication Year :: 2018
Abstract: The origin of cosmic neutrinos is still largely unknown. Using data obtained by the gamma-ray imager on board of the AGILE satellite, we systematically searched for transient gamma-ray sources above 100 MeV that are temporally and spatially coincident with ten recent high-energy neutrino IceCube events. We find three AGILE candidate sources that can be considered possible counterparts to neutrino events. Detecting 3 gamma-ray/neutrino associations out of 10 IceCube events is shown to be unlikely due to a chance coincidence. One of the sources is related to the BL Lac source TXS 0506+056. For the other two AGILE gamma-ray sources there are no obvious known counterparts, and both Galactic and extragalactic origin should be considered.<br />Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ