64 research outputs found
GeV to TeV astrophysical tau neutrinos
Neutrinos with energy greater than GeV are copiously produced in the p(A,p)
interactions occurring in several astrophysical sites such as (i) the earth
atmosphere, (ii) our galactic plane as well as in (iii) the galaxy clusters. A
comparison of the tau and mu neutrino flux in the presence of neutrino
oscillations from these three representative astrophysical sites is presented.
It is pointed out that the non-atmospheric tau neutrino flux starts dominating
over the downward going atmospheric tau neutrino flux for neutrino energy E as
low as 10 GeV. This energy value is much lower than the energy value, E \geq
5\times 10^4 GeV, estimated for the dominance of the non-atmospheric mu
neutrino flux, in the presence of neutrino oscillations. Future prospects for
possible observations of non-atmospheric tau neutrino flux are briefly
mentioned.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures (to appear in PLB
From AMANDA to IceCube
The first string of the neoteric high energy neutrino telescope IceCube
successfully began operating in January 2005. It is anticipated that upon
completion the new detector will vastly increase the sensitivity and extend the
reach of AMANDA to higher energies. A discussion of the IceCube's discovery
potential for extra-terrestrial neutrinos, together with the prospects of new
physics derived from the ongoing AMANDA research will be the focus of this
paper. Preliminary results of the first antarctic high energy neutrino
telescope AMANDA searching in the muon neutrino channel for localized and
diffuse excess of extra-terrestrial neutrinos will be reviewed using data
collected between 2000 and 2003. Neutrino flux limits obtained with the
all-flavor dedicated UHE and cascade analyses will be described. A first
neutrino spectrum above one TeV in agreement with atmospheric neutrino flux
expectations and no extra-terrestrial contribution will be presented, followed
by a discussion of a limit for neutralino CDM candidates annihilating in the
center of the Sun.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures Invited talk contribution at 5th International
Conference on Non-accelerator New Physics (NANP 05), Dubna, Russia, 20-25 Jun
200
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
Prompt muon contribution to the flux underwater
We present high energy spectra and zenith-angle distributions of the
atmospheric muons computed for the depths of the locations of the underwater
neutrino telescopes. We compare the calculations with the data obtained in the
Baikal and the AMANDA muon experiments. The prompt muon contribution to the
muon flux underwater due to recent perturbative QCD-based models of the charm
production is expected to be observable at depths of the large underwater
neutrino telescopes. This appears to be probable even at rather shallow depths
(1-2 km), provided that the energy threshold for muon detection is raised above
TeV.Comment: 7 pages, RevTeX, 7 eps figures, final version to be published in
Phys.Rev.D; a few changes made in the text and the figures, an approximation
formula for muon spectra at the sea level, the muon zenith-angle distribution
table data and references adde
Propagation of Muons and Taus at High Energies
The photonuclear contribution to charged lepton energy loss has been
re-evaluated taking into account HERA results on real and virtual photon
interactions with nucleons. With large processes incorporated, the
average muon range in rock for muon energies of GeV is reduced by only
5% as compared with the standard treatment. We have calculated the tau energy
loss for energies up to GeV taking into consideration the decay of the
tau. A Monte Carlo evaluation of tau survival probability and range show that
at energies below GeV, depending on the material, only tau decays
are important. At higher energies the tau energy losses are significant,
reducing the survival probability of the tau. We show that the average range
for tau is shorter than its decay length and reduce to 17 km in water for an
incident tau energy of GeV, as compared with its decay length of 49 km
at that energy. In iron, the average tau range is 4.7 km for the same incident
energy.Comment: 25 pages including 8 figure
High Energy Neutrino Production by Cosmic Ray Interactions in the Sun
The flux of neutrinos originating from cosmic ray interactions with matter in
the Sun has been calculated based on Monte Carlo models for high energy
particle interactions. The resulting flux at the Earth (within the Sun's solid
angle) is higher than the corresponding one from cosmic ray interactions with
the Earth atmosphere. The smallness of the absolute rate, however, precludes it
as a practical `standard candle' for neutrino telescopes and limits neutrino
oscillation searches. On the other hand, it facilitates dark matter searches
based on neutrinos from neutralino annihilation in the Sun.Comment: 14 pages, also available at http://www3.tsl.uu.se/thep/papers
Pathlength distribution of atmospheric neutrinos
We present the distribution of the production heights of atmsopheric
neutrinos as a function of zenith angle and neutrino energy. The distributions
can be used as the input for evaluation of neutrino propagation under various
hypotheses for neutrino flavor oscillations.Comment: REVTeX file with 5 postscript figure
Sensitivity of the IceCube Detector to Astrophysical Sources of High Energy Muon Neutrinos
We present the results of a Monte-Carlo study of the sensitivity of the
planned IceCube detector to predicted fluxes of muon neutrinos at TeV to PeV
energies. A complete simulation of the detector and data analysis is used to
study the detector's capability to search for muon neutrinos from sources such
as active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. We study the effective area and the
angular resolution of the detector as a function of muon energy and angle of
incidence. We present detailed calculations of the sensitivity of the detector
to both diffuse and pointlike neutrino emissions, including an assessment of
the sensitivity to neutrinos detected in coincidence with gamma-ray burst
observations. After three years of datataking, IceCube will have been able to
detect a point source flux of E^2*dN/dE = 7*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV at a 5-sigma
significance, or, in the absence of a signal, place a 90% c.l. limit at a level
E^2*dN/dE = 2*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV. A diffuse E-2 flux would be detectable at a
minimum strength of E^2*dN/dE = 1*10^-8 cm^-2s^-1sr^-1GeV. A gamma-ray burst
model following the formulation of Waxman and Bahcall would result in a 5-sigma
effect after the observation of 200 bursts in coincidence with satellite
observations of the gamma-rays.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, 6 table
Tau neutrino fluxes from atmospheric charm
We present an evaluation of the atmospheric tau neutrino flux in the energy
range between and GeV. The main source of tau neutrinos is from
charmed particle production and decay. The event rate
for a detector with a water equivalent volume of 1 km is on the order of
60-100 events per year for GeV, reducing to 18 events above 1 TeV.
Event rates for atmospheric muon neutrino oscillations to tau neutrinos are
also evaluated.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur
Shower Power: Isolating the Prompt Atmospheric Neutrino Flux Using Electron Neutrinos
At high energies, the very steep decrease of the conventional atmospheric
component of the neutrino spectrum should allow the emergence of even small and
isotropic components of the total spectrum, indicative of new physics, provided
that they are less steeply decreasing, as generically expected. One candidate
is the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux, a probe of cosmic ray composition in
the region of the knee as well as small- QCD, below the reach of collider
experiments. A second is the diffuse extragalactic background due to distant
and unresolved AGNs and GRBs, a key test of the nature of the highest-energy
sources in the universe. Separating these new physics components from the
conventional atmospheric neutrino flux, as well as from each other, will be
very challenging. We show that the charged-current {\it electron} neutrino
"shower" channel should be particularly effective for isolating the prompt
atmospheric neutrino flux, and that it is more generally an important
complement to the usually-considered charged-current {\it muon} neutrino
"track" channel. These conclusions remain true even for the low prompt
atmospheric neutrino flux predicted in a realistic cosmic ray scenario with
heavy and varying composition across the knee (Candia and Roulet, 2003 JCAP
{\bf 0309}, 005). We also improve the corresponding calculation of the neutrino
flux induced by cosmic ray collisions with the interstellar medium.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. Minor modifications, version accepted for
publication in JCA
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