2,193 research outputs found
Extra galactic sources of high energy neutrinos
The main goal of the construction of large volume, high energy neutrino
telescopes is the detection of extra-Galactic neutrino sources. The existence
of such sources is implied by observations of ultra-high energy, >10^{19} eV,
cosmic-rays (UHECRs), the origin of which is a mystery. The observed UHECR flux
sets an upper bound to the extra-Galactic high energy neutrino intensity, which
implies that the detector size required to detect the signal in the energy
range of 1 TeV to 1 PeV is >=1 giga-ton, and much larger at higher energy.
Optical Cerenkov neutrino detectors, currently being constructed under ice and
water, are expected to achieve 1 giga-ton effective volume for 1 TeV to 1 PeV
neutrinos. Coherent radio Cerenkov detectors (and possibly large air-shower
detectors) will provide the >> 1 giga-ton effective volume required for
detection at ~10^{19} eV. Detection of high energy neutrinos associated with
electromagnetically identified sources will allow to identify the sources of
UHECRs, will provide a unique probe of the sources, which may allow to resolve
open questions related to the underlying physics of models describing these
powerful accelerators, and will provide information on fundamental neutrino
properties.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; Summary of talk presented at the Nobel Symposium
129: Neutrino Physics, Sweden 200
TeV Neutrinos from Successful and Choked Gamma-Ray Bursts
Core collapse of massive stars resulting in a relativistic fireball jet which
breaks through the stellar envelope is a widely discussed scenario for
gamma-ray burst production. For very extended or slow rotating stars, the
fireball may be unable to break through the envelope. Both penetrating and
choked jets will produce, by photo-meson interactions of accelerated protons, a
burst of neutrinos with energies in excess of 5 TeV while propagating in the
envelope. The predicted flux, from both penetrating and chocked fireballs,
should be easily detectable by planned cubic kilometer neutrino telescopes.Comment: Phys.Rev.Letters, in press, final version accepted 8/31/01 (orig.
3/17/01
Statistics of clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and the number of their sources
Observation of clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) suggests
that they are emitted by compact sources. Assuming small deflection of UHECR
during the propagation, the statistical analysis of clustering allows to
estimate the spatial density of the sources, h, including those which have not
yet been observed directly. When applied to astrophysical models involving
extra-galactic sources, the estimate based on 14 events with energy E>10^{20}
eV gives h ~ 6 X 10^{-3} Mps^{-3}. With increasing statistics, this estimate
may lead to exclusion of the models which associate the production of UHECR
with exceptional galaxies such as AGN, powerful radio-galaxies, dead quasars,
and models based on gamma ray bursts.Comment: The version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. Notations
changed to conventional ones. The estimate of the effective GZK radius
replaced by the result of numerical simulatio
Galactic Anisotropy as Signature of ``Top-Down'' Mechanisms of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
We show that ``top-down'' mechanisms of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays which
involve heavy relic particle-like objects predict Galactic anisotropy of
highest energy cosmic rays at the level of minimum . This anisotropy
is large enough to be either observed or ruled out in the next generation of
experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX. Final version appeared in Pisma Zh. Eksp.
Teor. Fi
High Energy Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources: An Upper Bound
We show that cosmic-ray observations set a model-independent upper bound to
the flux of high-energy, > 10^14 eV, neutrinos produced by photo-meson (or p-p)
interactions in sources of size not much larger than the proton photo-meson (or
pp) mean-free-path. The bound applies, in particular, to neutrino production by
either AGN jets or GRBs. This upper limit is two orders of magnitude below the
flux predicted in some popular AGN jet models, but is consistent with our
predictions from GRB models. We discuss the implications of these results for
future km^2 high-energy neutrino detectors.Comment: Added discussion showing bound cannot be evaded by invoking magnetic
fields. Accepted Phys Rev
Maximum Likelihood Analysis of Clusters of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
We present a numerical code designed to conduct a likelihood analysis for
clusters of nucleons above 10**19 eV originating from discrete astrophysical
sources such as powerful radio galaxies, gamma-ray bursts or topological
defects. The code simulates the propagation of nucleons in a large-scale
magnetic field and constructs the likelihood of a given observed event cluster
as a function of the average time delay due to deflection in the magnetic
field, the source activity time scale, the total fluence of the source, and the
power law index of the particle injection spectrum. Other parameters such as
the coherence length and the power spectrum of the magnetic field are also
considered. We apply it to the three pairs of events above 4X10**19 eV recently
reported by the Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) experiment, assuming that
these pairs were caused by nucleon primaries which originated from a common
source. Although current data are too sparse to fully constrain each of the
parameters considered, and/or to discriminate models of the origin of
ultra-high energy cosmic rays, several tendencies are indicated. If the
clustering suggested by AGASA is real, next generation experiments with their
increased exposure should detect more than 10 particles per source over a few
years and our method will put strong constraints on both the large-scale
magnetic field parameters and the nature of these sources.Comment: 11 latex pages, 8 postscript figures included, uses revtex.sty in
two-column format and epsf.sty. Submitted to Physical Review
Cosmological Origin for Cosmic Rays Above eV
The cosmic ray spectrum at , reported by the
Fly's Eye and the AGASA experiments, is shown to be consistent with a
cosmological distribution of sources of protons, with a power law generation
spectrum and energy production rate of
. The two
events measured above are not inconsistent with this model.
Verifying the existence of a ``black-body cutoff'', currently observed with low
significance, would require observation-years with existing
experiments, but only year with the proposed
detectors. For a cosmological source distribution, no anisotropy is expected in
the angular distribution of events with energies up to .Comment: uuencoded gz-compressed postscript file, including 2 figures; To
appear in the October 10 (1995) issue of the Ap. J. Letter
Neutrino signatures of the supernova - gamma ray burst relationship
We calculate the TeV-PeV neutrino fluxes of gamma-ray bursts associated with
supernovae, based on the observed association between GRB 030329 and supernova
SN 2003dh. The neutrino spectral flux distributions can test for possible
delays between the supernova and the gamma-ray burst events down to much
shorter timescales than what can be resolved with photons. As an illustrative
example, we calculate the probability of neutrino induced muon and electron
cascade events in a km scale under-ice detector at the South Pole, from the GRB
030329. Our calculations demonstrate that km scale neutrino telescopes are
expected to detect signals that will allow to constrain supernova-GRB models.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
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