Evidence for neutrino emission from the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068

Authors: R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams, J. A. Aguilar, M. Ahlers, M. Ahrens, J. M. Alameddine, C. Alispach, A. A. Alves, N. M. Amin, K. Andeen, T. Anderson, G. Anton, C. Argüelles, Y. Ashida, Spencer Axani, X. Bai, Aswathi Balagopal, A. Barbano, S. W. Barwick, B. Bastian, V. Basu, S. Baur, R. Bay, J. J. Beatty, K.-H. Becker, J. Becker Tjus, Chiara Bellenghi, S. BenZvi, D. Berley, E. Bernardini, D. Z. Besson, G. Binder, D. Bindig, E. Blaufuss, Summer Blot, Matthias Boddenberg, F. Bontempo, J. Borowka, S. Böser, O. Botner, J. Böttcher, E. Bourbeau, F. Bradascio, J. Braun, B. Brinson, S. Bron, J. Brostean-Kaiser, Sally-Ann Browne, A. Burgman, R. T. Burley, R. S. Busse, Michael Campana, Erin Carnie-Bronca, Kunal Deoskar, Z. Chen, D. Chirkin, K. Choi, Brian Clark, K. Clark, L. Classen, Alan Coleman, G. H. Collin, J. M. Conrad, Paul Coppin, Pablo Correa, D. F. Cowen, R. Cross, C. Dappen, P. Dave, C. De Clercq, J. J. DeLaunay, D. Delgado López, H. Dembinski, Kunal Deoskar, A. Desai, P. Desiati, K. D. de Vries, G. de Wasseige, M. de With, T. DeYoung, A. Diaz, J. C. Díaz–Vélez, M. Dittmer, H. Dujmovic, M. Dunkman, M. A. DuVernois, Emily Dvorak, T. Ehrhardt, P. Eller, R. Engel, H. Erpenbeck, John Evans, P. A. Evenson, Kwok Lung Fan, A. R. Fazely, A. Fedynitch, N. Feigl, S. Fiedlschuster, A. T. Fienberg, K. Filimonov, C. Finley, L. Fischer, D. B. Fox, A. Franckowiak, E. Friedman, Alexander Fritz, P. Fürst, T. K. Gaisser, J. Gallagher, Erik Ganster, A. Garcia, S. Garrappa, L. Gerhardt, A. Ghadimi, Christian Gläser, T. Glauch, T. Glüsenkamp, A. Goldschmidt, J. G. Gonzalez, Sreetama Goswami, Darren Grant, T. Grégoire, Spencer Griswold, C. Günther, Pascal Gutjahr, Christian Haack, A. Hallgren, R. Halliday, L. Halve, F. Halzen, M. Ha Minh, K. Hanson, J. Hardin, A. A. Harnisch, A. Haungs, D. Hebecker, K. Helbing, F. Henningsen, Emma C. Hettinger, S. Hickford, J. Hignight, C. Hill, G. C. Hill, K. D. Hoffman, R. Hoffmann, B. Hokanson-Fasig, K. Hoshina, F. Huang, M. Huber, T. Huber, K. Hultqvist, M. Hünnefeld, R. Hussain, Karolin Hymon, S. In, N. Iovine, A. Ishihara, M. Jansson, G. S. Japaridze, M. Jeong, Miaochen Jin, B. J. P. Jones, D. Kang, Woosik Kang, X. Kang, A. Kappes, D. Kappesser, Leonora Kardum, T. Karg, Martina Karl, A. Karle, U. Katz, M. Kauer, M. Kellermann, J. L. Kelley, A. Kheirandish, Ken'ichi Kin, T. Kintscher, J. Kiryluk, S. R. Klein, R. Koirala, H. Kolanoski, T. Kontrimas, L. Köpke, C. Kopper, S. Kopper, D. J. Koskinen, Paras Koundal, M. Kovacevich, M. Kowalski, T. Kozynets, Emma Kun, N. Kurahashi, Neha Navnitkumar Lad, Cristina Lagunas Gualda, J. L. Lanfranchi, M. J. Larson, Frederik Hermann Lauber, J. P. Lazar, J. W. Lee, K. Leonard, A. Leszczyńska, Y. Li, M. Lincetto, Q. R. Liu, M. Liubarska, E. Lohfink, C. J. Lozano Mariscal, L. Lu, F. Lucarelli, Andrew Ludwig, W. Luszczak, Y. Lyu, W. Y., J. Madsen, K. B. M. Mahn, Y. Makino, Sarah Mancina, I. C. Mariş, I. Martinez-Soler, R. Maruyama, K. Mase, T. McElroy, F. McNally, J. V. Mead, K. Meagher, S. Mechbal, A. Medina, Maximilian Meier, S. Meighen-Berger, Jessie Micallef, D. Mockler, T. Montaruli, R. W. Moore, R. Morse, Marjon Moulai, R. Naab, R. Nagai, R. Nahnhauer, U. Naumann, J. Necker, Le Viet Nguyen, Hans Niederhausen, M. U. Nisa, S. C. Nowicki, D. Nygren, A. Obertacke Pollmann, M. Oehler, Bob Oeyen, A. Olivas, Erin O’Sullivan, Hershal Pandya, D. V. Pankova, N. Park, G. K. Parker, E. N. Paudel, L. Paul, C. Pérez de los Heros, L. Peters, J. Peterson, S. Philippen, S. Pieper, M. Pittermann, A. Pizzuto, M. Plum, Y. Popovych, A. Porcelli, M. Prado Rodriguez, P. B. Price, B. Pries, G. T. Przybylski, Christoph Raab, J. Rack-Helleis, Amirreza Raissi, M. Rameez, K. Rawlins, I. C. Rea, Abdul Rehman, P. Reichherzer, R. Reimann, G. Renzi, E. Resconi, Simeon Reusch, W. Rhode, M. Richman, B. Riedel, E. J. Roberts, S. Robertson, Gerrit Roellinghoff, Martin Rongen, C. Rott, T. Ruhe, D. Ryckbosch, Devyn Rysewyk Cantu, I. Safa, J. Saffer, S. E. Sanchez Herrera, Alexander Sandrock, J. Sandroos, M. Santander, Sourav Sarkar, S. Sarkar, K. Satalecka, M. Schaufel, H. Schieler, S. Schindler, T. Schmidt, A. Schneider, J. Schneider, Frank Schröder, L. Schumacher, Georg Schwefer, S. Sclafani, D. Seckel, S. Seunarine, A. Sharma, S. Shefali, M. Silva, B. Skrzypek, B. Smithers, R. Snihur, J. Soedingrekso, D. Soldin, C. Spannfellner, G. M. Spiczak, Christian Spiering, Juliana Stachurska, M. Stamatikos, T. Stanev, Robert Stein, J. Stettner, A. Steuer, T. Stezelberger, R. Stokstad, T. Stürwald, Thomas Stuttard, G. W. Sullivan, I. Taboada, S. Ter–Antonyan, S. Tilav, Franziska Tischbein, K. Tollefson, C. Tönnis, S. Toscano, D. Tosi, Alexander Trettin, M. Tselengidou, C. F. Tung, A. Turcati, R. Turcotte, Colin Turley, Jean Pierre Twagirayezu, B. Ty, Martin Unland Elorrieta, N. Valtonen-Mattila, J. Vandenbroucke, N. van Eijndhoven, D. Vannerom, J. van Santen, S. Verpoest, C. Walck, T. B. Watson, C. Weaver, P. Weigel, A. Weindl, Matthew J. Weiss, J. Weldert, C. Wendt, J. Werthebach, M. Weyrauch, N. Whitehorn, C. H. Wiebusch, D. R. Williams, M. Wolf, K. Woschnagg, G. Wrede, Johan Wilfried Wulff, Xiaolin Xu, J. P. Yáñez, S. Yoshida, S. Yu, Tiantian Yuan, Z. Zhang, P. Zhelnin - Science 2022 cited by 467

A supermassive black hole, obscured by cosmic dust, powers the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068. Neutrinos, which rarely interact with matter, could provide information on the galaxy's active core. We searched for neutrino emission from astrophysical objects using data recorded with the IceCube neutrino detector between 2011 and 2020. The positions of 110 known gamma-ray sources were individually searched for neutrino detections above atmospheric and cosmic backgrounds. We found that NGC 1068 has an excess of [Formula: see text] neutrinos at tera-electron volt energies, with a global significance of 4.2σ, which we interpret as associated with the active galaxy. The flux of high-energy neutrinos that we measured from NGC 1068 is more than an order of magnitude higher than the upper limit on emissions of tera-electron volt gamma rays from this source.