High Energy Neutrinos from the Fermi Bubbles

Recently the Fermi-LAT data have revealed two gamma-ray emitting bubble-shaped structures at the Galactic center. If the observed gamma rays have hadronic origin (collisions of accelerated protons), the bubbles must emit high energy neutrinos as well. This new, Galactic, neutrino flux should trace the gamma-ray emission in spectrum and spatial extent. Its highest energy part, above 20-50 TeV, is observable at a kilometer-scale detector in the northern hemisphere, such as the planned KM3NeT, while interesting constraints on it could be obtained by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. The detection or exclusion of neutrinos from the Fermi bubbles will discriminate between hadronic and leptonic models, thus bringing unique information on the still mysterious origin of these objects and on the time scale of their formation.