We consider the production of neutrinos in active galactic nuclei through hadronic cascades. The initial, high-energy nucleons are accelerated in a source above the accretion disk around the central black hole. From the source, the particles diffuse back to the disk and initiate hadronic cascades through $\mathrm{pp}$ interactions. The observable output from the cascade is electromagnetic radiation and neutrinos. We use the observed diffuse background x-ray luminosity, which presumably results from this process, to predict the diffuse neutrino flux close to the existing limits from the Frejus experiment. The resulting neutrino spectrum is $E^{-2\mathrm{}}$ down to the GeV region. We discuss modifications of this scenario which reduce the predicted neutrino flux.

• Received 16 November 1992

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.47.5270