Estimating source distances for high-energy neutrinos: A method for improving electromagnetic follow-up searches

Abstract: High-energy neutrino telescopes such as IceCube or KM3NeT issue public alerts describing the characteristics of possible astrophysical high-energy neutrino events. This information, particularly with respect to the arrival direction and the associated uncertainty of the neutrino candidates, is used by observatories to search for possible electromagnetic counterparts. Such searches are complicated by the size of localisation areas, which can be up to tens of squared degrees or more, coupled with the absence of constraints on the distance or nature of the possible source - in contrast to gravitational wave alerts issued by instruments such as LIGO/Virgo. Here, we describe a method for deriving a probable distance interval for the astrophysical source that may possibly be associated with a HEN event, which may then be used in a cross-matching with galaxy catalogues to search for plausible electromagnetic counterparts. This study is intended to serve as a guide for high-energy neutrino followup campaigns.