Seyfert Galaxies as Neutrino Sources: An Outflow$-$Cloud Interaction Perspective

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Auteurs principaux: Ma, Zhi-Peng, Wang, Kai, Zuo, Yuan-Yuan, Zou, Yuan-Chuan
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Ma, Zhi-Peng
Wang, Kai
Zuo, Yuan-Yuan
Zou, Yuan-Chuan
author_facet Ma, Zhi-Peng
Wang, Kai
Zuo, Yuan-Yuan
Zou, Yuan-Chuan
contents Following the identification of the first confirmed individual neutrino source, Seyfert galaxies have emerged as the most prominent class of high-energy neutrino emitters. In this work, we perform a detailed investigation of the outflow--cloud interaction scenario for neutrino production in Seyfert nuclei. In this framework, fast AGN-driven winds collide with clumpy gas clouds in the nuclear region, forming bow shocks that efficiently accelerate cosmic-ray protons. The accelerated protons subsequently interact with cold protons from the outflows via inelastic proton--proton ($pp$) collisions, producing high-energy neutrinos, while the photomeson ($pγ$) process with disk photons may provide a subdominant contribution at the highest energies. Applying this model to five neutrino-associated Seyfert galaxies, we successfully reproduce the observed TeV neutrino fluxes without violating existing gamma-ray constraints. By integrating over the Seyfert population using X-ray luminosity functions, we further demonstrate that Seyfert galaxies can account for a substantial fraction of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino background in the $10^4-10^5~{\rm GeV}$ energy range.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_06707
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Seyfert Galaxies as Neutrino Sources: An Outflow$-$Cloud Interaction Perspective
Ma, Zhi-Peng
Wang, Kai
Zuo, Yuan-Yuan
Zou, Yuan-Chuan
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Following the identification of the first confirmed individual neutrino source, Seyfert galaxies have emerged as the most prominent class of high-energy neutrino emitters. In this work, we perform a detailed investigation of the outflow--cloud interaction scenario for neutrino production in Seyfert nuclei. In this framework, fast AGN-driven winds collide with clumpy gas clouds in the nuclear region, forming bow shocks that efficiently accelerate cosmic-ray protons. The accelerated protons subsequently interact with cold protons from the outflows via inelastic proton--proton ($pp$) collisions, producing high-energy neutrinos, while the photomeson ($pγ$) process with disk photons may provide a subdominant contribution at the highest energies. Applying this model to five neutrino-associated Seyfert galaxies, we successfully reproduce the observed TeV neutrino fluxes without violating existing gamma-ray constraints. By integrating over the Seyfert population using X-ray luminosity functions, we further demonstrate that Seyfert galaxies can account for a substantial fraction of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino background in the $10^4-10^5~{\rm GeV}$ energy range.
title Seyfert Galaxies as Neutrino Sources: An Outflow$-$Cloud Interaction Perspective
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.06707