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    Dust-obscured radio-emitting tidal disruption event coincident with a high-energy neutrino event

    Tianyao Zhou1, Xinwen Shu1,*, Guobin Mou2,†, Lei Yang1, Luming Sun1, Fangkun Peng1, Fabao Zhang1, Hucheng Ding1, Ning Jiang3 et al.

    Tinggui Wang3, Yogesh Chandola4,5, Daizhong Liu5, Liming Dou6, Yibo Wang3, Jianguo Wang7, Zhongzu Wu8, and Chenwei Yang9

    • *Contact author: xwshu@ahnu.edu.cn
    • Contact author: gbmou@njnu.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. D 113, 043046 – Published 23 February, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/j8g9-f6hh

    Abstract

    Despite the growing number of high-energy neutrinos (TeV–PeV) detected by IceCube, their astrophysical origins remain largely unidentified. Recent observations have linked a few tidal disruption events (TDEs) to the production of high-energy neutrino emission, all of which display dust-reprocessed infrared flares, indicating a dust- and gas-rich environment. By cross-matching the neutrino events and a sample of mid-infrared outbursts in nearby galaxies with transient radio flares, we uncover an optically obscured TDE candidate, SDSS J151345.75+311125.2, which shows both spatial and temporal coincidence with the sub-PeV neutrino event IC170514B. Using a standard equipartition analysis of the synchrotron spectral evolution spanning 605 days post mid-infrared discovery, we find a little evolution in the radio-emitting region, with a kinetic energy up to 1051erg, depending on the outflow geometry and shock acceleration efficiency assumed. High-resolution European VLBI Network imaging reveals a compact radio emission that is unresolved at a scale of <2.1pc, with a brightness temperature of Tb>5×106K, suggesting that the observed late-time radio emission might originate from the interaction between a decelerating outflow and a dense circumnuclear medium. If the association is genuine, the neutrino production is possibly related to the acceleration of protons through pp collisions during the outflow expanding process, implying that the outflow-cloud interaction could provide a physical site with a high-density environment for producing the sub-PeV neutrinos. Such a scenario can be tested with future identifications of radio transients coincident with high-energy neutrinos.

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