Searching for electromagnetic counterparts to high-energy neutrinos

by Anna Franckowiak (DESY)

Monday 12 Nov 2018, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Berlin

buildg. 01b / 4a+b (Hamburg)

Special Physics Colloquium! The recent discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos has opened a new window to the Universe. In September 2017, the detection of a high-energy neutrino in coincidence with a flaring gamma-ray blazar revealed a first compelling high-energy neutrino source candidate. At the same time, gamma-ray blazars are disfavoured as the dominant neutrino source class. Other plausible source candidates are tidal disruption events, low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts and supernovae. Combining neutrino data with electromagnetic measurements in a multi-messenger approach increases the sensitivity to identify other neutrino sources and helps to solve long-standing problems in astrophysics, such as the origin of cosmic rays. I will review the recent progress in neutrino multi-messenger astronomy and highlight the potential of the Zwicky Transient Facility, a novel optical survey instrument to probe various source classes as neutrino emitters. DESY with its involvement in current and future observatories is well positioned to be a center of multi-messenger astronomy.

Poster PAcolloquium_Franckowiak_12November2018.pdf