287 research outputs found
Radio Detection of High Energy Particles: Coherence Versus Multiple Scales
Radio Cherenkov emission underlines detection of high energy particles via a
signal growing like the particle-energy-squared. Cosmic ray-induced
electromagnetic showers are a primary application. While many studies have
treated the phenomenon approximately, none have attempted to incorporate all
the physical scales involved in problems with time- or spatially- evolving
charges. We find it is possible to decompose the calculated fields into the
product of a form factor, characterizing a moving charge distribution,
multiplying a general integral which depends on the charge evolution. In
circumstances of interest for cosmic ray physics, the resulting expressions can
be evaluated explicitely in terms of a few parameters obtainable from shower
codes. The classic issues of Frauhofer and Fresnel zones play a crucial role in
the coherence.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figure
Searching for Oscillations with Extragalactic Neutrinos
We propose a novel approach for studying oscillations
with extragalactic neutrinos. Active Galactic Nuclei and Gamma Ray Bursts are
believed to be sources of ultrahigh energy muon neutrinos. With distances of
100 Mpc or more, they provide an unusually long baseline for possible detection
of with mixing parameters down to
eV, many orders of magnitude below the current accelerator
experiments. By solving the coupled transport equations, we show that
high-energy 's, as they propagate through the earth, cascade down in
energy, producing the enhancement of the incoming flux in the low
energy region, in contrast to the high-energy 's, which get absorbed.
For an AGN quasar model we find the flux to be a factor of 2 to 2.5
larger than the incoming flux in the energy range between GeV and
GeV, while for a GRB fireball model, the enhancement is 10%-27% in the same
energy range and for zero nadir angle. This enhancement decreases with larger
nadir angle, thus providing a novel way to search for appearance by
measuring the angular dependence of the muons. To illustrate how the cascade
effect and the final flux depend on the steepness of the incoming
, we show the energy and angular distributions for several generic
cases of the incoming tau neutrino flux, for n=1,2 and
3.6. We show that for the incoming flux that is not too steep, the signal for
the appearance of high-energy is the enhanced production of lower
energy and their distinctive angular dependence, due to the contribution
from the decay into just below the detector.Comment: 11 pages, including 4 color figure
Neutrino Interactions at Ultrahigh Energies
We report new calculations of the cross sections for deeply inelastic
neutrino-nucleon scattering at neutrino energies between 10^{9}\ev and
10^{21}\ev. We compare with results in the literature and assess the
reliability of our predictions. For completeness, we briefly review the cross
sections for neutrino interactions with atomic electrons, emphasizing the role
of the -boson resonance in interactions for neutrino
energies in the neighborhood of 6.3\pev. Adopting model predictions for
extraterrestrial neutrino fluxes from active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray
bursters, and the collapse of topological defects, we estimate event rates in
large-volume water \v{C}erenkov detectors and large-area ground arrays.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures, uses RevTeX and boxedep
Lepton Fluxes from Atmospheric Charm
We reexamine the charm contribution to atmospheric lepton fluxes in the
context of perturbative QCD. We include next-to-leading order corrections and
discuss theoretical uncertainties due to the extrapolations of the gluon
distributions at small-x. We show that the charm contribution to the
atmospheric muon flux becomes dominant over the conventional contribution from
pion and kaon decays at energies of about 10^5 GeV. We compare our fluxes with
previous calculations.Comment: 19 pages, latex, revtex, psfi
High Energy Neutrino Signals of Four Neutrino Mixing
We evaluate the upward shower and muon event rates for two characteristic
four neutrino mixing models for extragalactic neutrinos, as well as for the
atmospheric neutrinos, with energy thresholds of 1 TeV, 10 TeV and 100 TeV. We
show that by comparing the shower to muon event rates, one can distinguish
between oscillation and no-oscillation models. By measuring shower and muon
event rates for energy thresholds of 10 TeV and 100 TeV, and by considering
their ratio, it is possible to use extragalactic neutrino sources to determine
the type of four-flavor mixing pattern. We find that one to ten years of data
taking with kilometer-size detector has a very good chance of providing
valuable information about the physics beyond the Standard Model.Comment: version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Neutrino Detection with Inclined Air Showers
The possibilities of detecting high energy neutrinos through inclined showers
produced in the atmosphere are addressed with an emphasis on the detection of
air showers by arrays of particle detectors. Rates of inclined showers produced
by both down-going neutrino interactions and by up-coming decays from
earth-skimming neutrinos as a function of shower energy are calculated with
analytical methods using two sample neutrino fluxes with different spectral
indices. The relative contributions from different flavors and charged, neutral
current and resonant interactions are compared for down-going neutrinos
interacting in the atmosphere. No detailed description of detectors is
attempted but rough energy thresholds are implemented to establish the ranges
of energies which are more suitable for neutrino detection through inclined
showers. Down-going and up-coming rates are compared.Comment: Submitted to New Journal of Physic
Constraining Antimatter Domains in the Early Universe with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
We consider the effect of a small-scale matter-antimatter domain structure on
big bang nucleosynthesis and place upper limits on the amount of antimatter in
the early universe. For small domains, which annihilate before nucleosynthesis,
this limit comes from underproduction of He-4. For larger domains, the limit
comes from He-3 overproduction. Most of the He-3 from antiproton-helium
annihilation is annihilated also. The main source of He-3 is
photodisintegration of He-4 by the electromagnetic cascades initiated by the
annihilation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, revtex, (slightly shortened
Cosmic Strings and the String Dilaton
The existence of a dilaton (or moduli) with gravitational-strength coupling
to matter imposes stringent constraints on the allowed energy scale of cosmic
strings, . In particular, superheavy gauge strings with are ruled out unless the dilaton mass m_{\phi} \gsim 100 TeV,
while the currently popular value imposes the bound \eta
\lsim 3 \times 10^{11} GeV. Similar constraints are obtained for global
topological defects. Some non-standard cosmological scenarios which can avoid
these constraints are pointed out.Comment: 16 page
Electromagnetic Cascades and Cascade Nucleosynthesis in the Early Universe
We describe a calculation of electromagnetic cascading in radiation and
matter in the early universe initiated by the decay of massive particles or by
some other process. We have used a combination of Monte Carlo and numerical
techniques which enables us to use exact cross sections, where known, for all
the relevant processes. In cascades initiated after the epoch of big bang
nucleosynthesis -rays in the cascades will photodisintegrate He,
producing He and deuterium. Using the observed He and deuterium
abundances we are able to place constraints on the cascade energy deposition as
a function of cosmic time. In the case of the decay of massive primordial
particles, we place limits on the density of massive primordial particles as a
function of their mean decay time, and on the expected intensity of decay
neutrinos.Comment: compressed and uuencoded postscript. We now include a comparison with
previous work of the photon spectrum in the cascade and the limits we
calculate for the density of massive particles. The method of calculation of
photon spectra at low energies has been improved. Most figures are revised.
Our conclusions are substantially unchange
POEMMA: Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics
The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) mission is being
designed to establish charged-particle astronomy with ultra-high energy cosmic
rays (UHECRs) and to observe cosmogenic tau neutrinos (CTNs). The study of
UHECRs and CTNs from space will yield orders-of-magnitude increase in
statistics of observed UHECRs at the highest energies, and the observation of
the cosmogenic flux of neutrinos for a range of UHECR models. These
observations should solve the long-standing puzzle of the origin of the highest
energy particles ever observed, providing a new window onto the most energetic
environments and events in the Universe, while studying particle interactions
well beyond accelerator energies. The discovery of CTNs will help solve the
puzzle of the origin of UHECRs and begin a new field of Astroparticle Physics
with the study of neutrino properties at ultra-high energies.Comment: 8 pages, in the Proceedings of the 35th International Cosmic Ray
Conference, ICRC217, Busan, Kore
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