Latest News
MessMapp results presented at the HEPRO IX conference, August 2025 -
Prof. Buson was invited to present an overview of MessMapp project's results at the HIGH ENERGY PHENOMENA IN RELATIVISTIC OUTFLOWS IX conference, in Rio de Janeiro. The contribution included the latest developments of icecubepy, and the latest multimessenger and theoretical modeling results.
August 2025Candidate neutrino-emitter blazars: intense radiation fields, powerful jets and efficient accretion
A study published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Journal focused on the multi-wavelength properties of candidate neutrino-emitter blazars. The work, led by PhD student Alessandra Azzollini, investigates the physical nature of a subset of blazars using radio, optical spectroscopic, and gamma-rays information. Using statistical techniques, it show that candidate neutrino-emitter blazars display a mild tendency toward hosting intense radiation fields, powerful jets and radiatively efficient accretion, in contrast to the general blazar population.
August 2025The X-ray band as probe of multimessenger emission in blazars
The X-ray band is a key tracer of hadronic processes in the blazar's SED, providing indirect evidence of neutrino production. In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, PhD student Jose Maria Sanchez Zaballa investigated the X-ray spectral properties of the blazar 5BZB J0630-2406, a candidate neutrino source, using multi-epoch observations from XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, Swift-XRT, and eROSITA. While blazars are typically dominated by jet emission, Jose Maria and collaborators discovered that during low-flux states, 5BZB J0630-2406 shows an unexpected hard X-ray component. The findings suggest that the blazar may switch from a jet-dominated regime to a more complex emission scenario, consistent with processes such as coronal emission or photoionized absorption usually found in obscured AGN. The work unravels possible similarities in the multimesseger (neutrino) emission of blazars with non-jetted sources, such as the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068.
July 2025Icecubepy and KM3NeT results presented at ICRC 2025 - The Astroparticle Physics Conference
The 2025 International Cosmic Ray Conference took place in Geneva. Massimiliano Lincetto, postdoc in the MessMapp group,
presented the latest developments of icecubepy, an open source software for the analysis of public IceCube data,
fruit of an intense effort by our group. More info about icecubepy are available at
the public GitHub repository,
In another presentation, Massimiliano reported the findings on the search and characterisation of candidate blazar counterparts
of the KM3NeT ultra-high energy event. The study was co-lead by the MessMapp group, with the involvement of an international team of collaborations.
Pre-print available in arXiv:2502.08484!
Fermi-LAT Collaboration Meeting 2025
At the 2025 Fermi-LAT Collaboration meeting in Milan, PhD student Leonard Pfeiffer reported on ongoing efforts by our team on the study of IceCube and KM3NeT high-energy events. One contribution focused on the search for blazar counterparts to the KM3NeT ultra-high energy neutrino detection, building on the results reported in the pre-print available on arXiv. In a second contribution, he provided an overview of the progress on neutrino real-time follow-up program with the Fermi-LAT, showcasing how rapid response analyses are being developed to unravel the possible connection between high-energy neutrino alerts and gamma-ray observations.
March 2025Workshop on Numerical Multi-Messenger Modelling
This workshop took place at DESY Zeuthen,
bringing together the community working on numerical codes to simulate multi-messenger emission (photons, neutrinos, cosmic rays)
from astrophysical sources. The workshop was designed to foster discussion and co-working, with sessions dedicated to recent
code developments and comparisons, applications to prominent sources in the photon/neutrino sky, and strategies for
multi-messenger data fitting. A huge organizational effort by Margot Boughelilba made the event possible.
Our group contributed with several talks: Jose Maria Sanchez Zaballa presented results on X-ray spectral features and
neutrino production in blazar 5BZB J0630-2406; Leonard Pfeiffer reported on the lepto-hadronic modelling of the
neutrino-candidate blazar 5BZB J1150+2417; and Massimiliano Lincetto discussed the KM3NeT ultra-high-energy
neutrino and its possible blazar origin (see also the pre-print on arXiv).
To close, Sara Buson gave an overview of MessMapp activities and recent science highlights, placing the
presented studies in a broader context and outlining the group's future directions.
The Highest Energy Neutrino Ever Observed
The KM3NeT collaboration measured a neutrino of record breaking energies using their ARCA detector in the mediterranian sea. Our team contributed to this study, helping shedding light in the possible blazar counterparts to this ultra-high-energy neutrino. Read more about these in the article published in Nature and the companion paper lead by our team. For more information, see the news website of the Julius-Maximilians University Würzburg.
February 2025Bachelor Thesis defended!
Annette Bremer finished and defended her Bachelor thesis on the characterization of the performance of an unbinned likelihood analysis framework using public data from the IceCube neutrino observatory.
October 2024Bachelor and Master Thesis defended!
Kilian Fischer finished and defended his Bachelor thesis
on the orbital Doppler boosting hypothesis of super massive black hole binaries.
Continuing his work in the MessMapp group also Leonard Pfeiffer completed his research
on the leptonic modelling of a candidate neutrino emitter blazar and successfully defended
his Master thesis
at the Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg.
A new member joining the group
We welcome: Dmitry Prokhorov, joining as a PostDoc. Dmitry is a researcher with experience in studying high energy data of AGN and supernovae. Now, his research will focus on variability studies of Fermi-LAT blazars.
May 2024Proposal for Nustar
...is accepted!
May 2024A new member joining the group
We welcome: Margot Boughelilba, joining as a PostDoc. Margot is a researcher with experience in studying radio galaxies. Currently, her research focuses on the SED modelling of the broad-band emission of blazars.
April 2024Proposal for Swift cycle 20
...is accepted!
February 2024Sub-GeV Gamma Rays from Nearby Seyfert Galaxies and Implications for Coronal Neutrino Emission
...is now published. It presents the results of recent observations of high-energy neutrinos by IceCube and gamma rays by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the MAGIC telescope, in which Sara Buson was involved.
February 2024The galactic bubbles of starburst galaxies \\ The influence of galactic large-scale magnetic fields
...is now published with contributions by Gaëtan. It presents the observations of the large-scale magnetic field, in which galactic winds expand, that can impact the structure and evolution of inflated bubbles.
February 2024Two new members joining the team
Josè Maria Sanchez Zaballa, joining as PhD student. Josè obtained his master degree
at the University of Padova, under the supervision of Prof. E. Bottaccini.
His thesis focused on the modelling of the spectral energy distribution of AGN.
Massimiliano Lincetto, joining as PostDoc. His experience in the high-energy multi-messenger
neutrino field is evidenced by substantial contributions made within the IceCube and KM3NeT collaborations.
The ICRC 2023
Prof. Sara Buson presented the previous work of the group at the astroparticle physics conference in Nagoya, Japan.
Vardan Baghmanyan also contributed with a talk about gamma-ray lightcurve variability of AGN. The group shared three posters summarizing the ambitous work of Alessandra, Eleonora and Gaetan.
The Galileo Galilei Science&Space Festival 2023
Prof. Sara Buson gave a speech at the Press Centre at ESOC in Darmstadt as part
of the Galileo Science&Space Festival 2023.
Her presentation delved into the fascinating realms of multi-messenger astronomy,
blazars and the possible origin of extragalactic neutrinos detected by IceCube.
For more details about the festival, see here .
Further results by the MessMapp team now accessable on ArXiv!
Extragalactic neutrino factories
Read the article.
Master Thesis defended!
After six months spent in our group through the Erasmus program, Margherita de Toma completed her research on a peculiar gamma-ray source: a gravitational lensed blazar. She successfully defended her Master thesis at the University of Pisa.
May 2023Two new members joining the team
We welcome two new team memers: Eleonora Barbano, joining as PhD student. Eleonora obtained her master degree at the University of Torino, under the supervison of Prof. R. Bonino. Her thesis focused on the study of cosmic rays with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Gaetan Fichet de Clairfontaine, joining as a PostDoc. Gaetan got his PhD degree at the Observatory of Paris, under the supervison of Prof. A. Zech. His PhD thesis focused on the modeling of AGN relativistic jet.
October 2022Early results by the MessMapp team published in ApJL!
Beginning a journey across the Universe: the discovery of extragalactic neutrino factories.
Read the article in ApJL (Buson et al. 2022, ApJL , 933, 43; ArXiv link).
Erratum article in ApJL (Buson et al. 2022, ApJL , 934, 2).
A new member joining MessMapp
We welcome: Vardan Baghmanyan, joining as a PostDoc. Vardan is a researcher with experience in studying GeV/TeV gamma-rays emitted by galactic sources, including molecular clouds and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). Currently, his research focuses on investigating the variability of TeV emissions from blazars.
July 2022B.Sc. Leonard Pfeiffer
Leo defended his Bachelor thesis. His work focussed on the charactherization of a possible PeVatron blazar.
Available at:
Multiwavelength investigation of PKS 1814-63 as a candidate gamma-ray source.
A new member joining MessMapp
We welcome: Alessandra Azollini, joining as a PhD student. Alessandra did her
master in the
University of Pisa under the supervision of Prof. S. N. Shore,
focusing on multi-wavelength spectroscopy of shock phenomena propagation in
explosive outbursts of symbiotic-like Recurrent Novae.
B.Sc. Lenz Oswald
Lenz defended his Bachelor thesis. His work focussed on candidate counterparts to
IceCube events in the field of eRASS. Available at:
Analysis of Counterparts of the Neutrino IceCube-200615A in the eFEDS Field of eROSITA