Neutrino production at the extreme vicinity of the supermassive black hole in NGC 1068

The identification of NGC~1068 as an extragalactic high-energy neutrino source raises the question of the physical conditions required for neutrino production. Motivated by the newly updated IceCube data (down to ~ 0.2 \, TeV) for NGC 1068, we present a statistical, model-independent inference primarily constrained by the multi-messenger observations. We calculate neutrino production from hadronic channels (including hadronuclear and photomeson processes) and the accompanying cascade gamma rays, and then employ the Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) method to explore the parameter space comprehensively, constrained by observational data. According to our results, the emission region is tightly limited: R 10\,Rₛ is excluded at ~ 5σ, and R 6\,Rₛ at ~ 3σ, where Rₛ is Schwarzschild radius of supermassive black hole (SMBH). Furthermore, reproducing 80% of the observed neutrino flux further restricts the emission to R 3Rₛ. Finally, we explore the possible particle acceleration mechanisms and find that stochastic acceleration naturally satisfies all constraints, whereas alternative mechanisms require extreme, fine-tuning parameters. We therefore identify stochastic acceleration as the most viable origin of the neutrino emission from NGC~1068.