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Coupled time-dependent proton acceleration and leptonic-hadronic radiation in turbulent supermassive black hole coronae

Chengchao Yuan (袁成超)1,*, Damiano F. G. Fiorillo1, Maria Petropoulou2, and Qinrui Liu (刘沁枘)3,4,5

  • *Contact author: chengchao.yuan@desy.de
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 043016 – Published 6 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6bcb-l68p

Abstract

Turbulent coronae of supermassive black holes can accelerate nonthermal particles to high energies and produce observable radiation, but capturing this process is challenging due to comparable timescales of acceleration, cooling, and the development of cascades. We present a time-dependent numerical framework that self-consistently couples proton acceleration—modeled by the Fokker-Planck equation—with leptonic-hadronic radiation. For the neutrino-emitting Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068, we reproduce the neutrino spectrum observed by IceCube while satisfying gamma-ray constraints. We also consider a transient corona scenario, potentially emerging in tidal disruption events like AT 2019dsg, and show that cascade feedback on proton cooling can impact proton acceleration and radiation processes in weaker coronae, producing delayed optical or ultraviolet, x-ray, and neutrino emissions of O(100  d). This flexible tool efficiently models multimessenger signals from both steady and transient astrophysical sources, providing insights in combining particle acceleration and radiation mechanisms.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 043016– Published 6 February, 2026
  • Received 14 August 2025
  • Accepted 20 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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