Recurrent Neutrino Emission from Supermassive Black Hole Mergers

Abstract

The recent detection of possible neutrino emission from the blazar TXS 0506+056 was the first high-energy neutrino associated with an astrophysical source, making this special type of active galaxies a promising neutrino emitter. The fact that two distinct episodes of neutrino emission were detected with a separation of around 3 yr raises the possibility that emission could be periodic. Periodic emission is expected from supermassive binary black hole systems due to jet precession close to the binary’s merger. Here, we show that, if TXS 0506+056 is a binary source, then the next neutrino flare could already have occurred, possibly still hidden in IceCube’s not-yet-analyzed data. We derive the binary properties that would lead to the detection of gravitational waves from this system by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) over the next decade. Our results for the first time quantify the timescale of these correlations for the example of TXS 0506+056, connecting the possible neutrino and gravitational-wave signatures of such sources.