Identifying Thorne-Żytkow Objects through Neutrinos

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Martínez-Miravé, Pablo, Tamborra, Irene, Vigna-Gómez, Alejandro
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Martínez-Miravé, Pablo
Tamborra, Irene
Vigna-Gómez, Alejandro
author_facet Martínez-Miravé, Pablo
Tamborra, Irene
Vigna-Gómez, Alejandro
contents Thorne-Żytkow Objects (TŻOs) have been predicted to form when a neutron star is engulfed by a diffuse, convective giant envelope. Accretion onto a neutron star at a rate that is larger than $10^{-4}\, M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ is expected to lead to significant emission of neutrinos of all flavors with energy of $1$-$100$ MeV. Since the neutrino signal is expected to largely vary in time (from milliseconds to thousands of years), we outline detection strategies tailored to the signal duration. We find that neutrino detection from TŻOs up to the Small Magellanic Cloud is within the reach of current- and next-generation neutrino observatories, such as Super- and Hyper-Kamiokande, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, and JUNO. Interestingly, if targeted searches for neutrinos from TŻO candidates (e.g.VX Sgr in our Galaxy as well as HV 2112 and HV 11417 in the Small Magellanic Cloud) should lead to positive results, neutrinos could positively identify the nature of such sources and their accretion rate. Furthermore, the diffuse supernova neutrino background may be able to rule out extreme scenarios for the formation and accretion rates of TŻOs. Our findings should serve as motivation for establishing dedicated searches for neutrino emission from TŻOs. This is especially timely since it is challenging to detect TŻOs via electromagnetic radiation unambiguously, and the TŻO gravitational wave signal could be probed with next-generation detectors for sources within our Galaxy only.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_03330
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Identifying Thorne-Żytkow Objects through Neutrinos
Martínez-Miravé, Pablo
Tamborra, Irene
Vigna-Gómez, Alejandro
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Thorne-Żytkow Objects (TŻOs) have been predicted to form when a neutron star is engulfed by a diffuse, convective giant envelope. Accretion onto a neutron star at a rate that is larger than $10^{-4}\, M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ is expected to lead to significant emission of neutrinos of all flavors with energy of $1$-$100$ MeV. Since the neutrino signal is expected to largely vary in time (from milliseconds to thousands of years), we outline detection strategies tailored to the signal duration. We find that neutrino detection from TŻOs up to the Small Magellanic Cloud is within the reach of current- and next-generation neutrino observatories, such as Super- and Hyper-Kamiokande, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, and JUNO. Interestingly, if targeted searches for neutrinos from TŻO candidates (e.g.VX Sgr in our Galaxy as well as HV 2112 and HV 11417 in the Small Magellanic Cloud) should lead to positive results, neutrinos could positively identify the nature of such sources and their accretion rate. Furthermore, the diffuse supernova neutrino background may be able to rule out extreme scenarios for the formation and accretion rates of TŻOs. Our findings should serve as motivation for establishing dedicated searches for neutrino emission from TŻOs. This is especially timely since it is challenging to detect TŻOs via electromagnetic radiation unambiguously, and the TŻO gravitational wave signal could be probed with next-generation detectors for sources within our Galaxy only.
title Identifying Thorne-Żytkow Objects through Neutrinos
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.03330