High energy neutrino yields from astrophysical sources I: Weakly magnetized sources

We calculate the yield of high energy neutrinos produced in astrophysical sources with negligible magnetic fields varying their interaction depth from nearly transparent to opaque. We take into account the scattering of secondaries on background photons as well as the direct production of neutrinos in decays of charm mesons. If multiple scattering of nucleons becomes important, the neutrino spectra from meson and muon decays are strongly modified with respect to transparent sources. Characteristic for neutrino sources containing photons as scattering targets is a strong energy-dependence of the ratio $R^0$ of $\nu_\mu$ and $\nu_e$ fluxes at the sources, ranging from $R^0=\phi_\mu/\phi_e\sim 0$ below threshold to $R^0\sim 4$ close to the energy where the decay length of charged pions and kaons equals their interaction length on target photons. Above this energy, the neutrino flux is strongly suppressed and depends mainly on charm production.Comment: 10 pages, 16 figures, references added, matches published versio

High energy neutrino yields from astrophysical sources II: Magnetized sources

We calculate the yield of high energy neutrinos produced in astrophysical sources for arbitrary interaction depths $\tau_0$ and magnetic field strengths $B$. We take into account energy loss processes like synchrotron radiation and diffusion of charged particles in turbulent magnetic fields as well as the scattering of secondaries on background photons and the direct production of charm neutrinos. Meson-photon interactions are simulated with an extended version of the SOPHIA model. Diffusion leads to an increased path-length before protons leave the source of size R_s and therefore magnetized sources lose their transparency below the energy $E\sim 10^{18}{\rm eV} (R_s/{\rm pc}) (B/{\rm mG}) \tau_0^{1/\alpha}$, with $\alpha=1/3$ and 1 for Kolmogorov and Bohm diffusion, respectively. Moreover, the neutrino flux is suppressed above the energy where synchrotron energy losses become important for charged particles. As a consequence, the energy spectrum and the flavor composition of neutrinos are strongly modified both at low and high energies even for sources with \tau_0\lsim 1.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figure

Restricting UHECRs and cosmogenic neutrinos with Fermi-LAT

Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (UHECR) protons interacting with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) produce UHE electrons and gamma-rays that in turn initiate electromagnetic cascades on CMB and infrared photons. As a result, a background of diffuse isotropic gamma radiation is accumulated in the energy range E\lsim 100 GeV. The Fermi-LAT collaboration has recently reported a measurement of the extragalactic diffuse background finding it less intense and softer than previously measured by EGRET. We show that this new result constrains UHECR models and the flux of cosmogenic neutrinos. In particular, it excludes models with cosmogenic neutrino fluxes detectable by existing neutrino experiments, while next-generation detectors as e.g. JEM-EUSO can observe neutrinos only for extreme parameters.Comment: 7 pages, 6 eps figures; v2: minor changes, v3: final version, added discussion of EGMF influenc

Black Holes from Cosmic Rays: Probes of Extra Dimensions and New Limits on TeV-Scale Gravity

If extra spacetime dimensions and low-scale gravity exist, black holes will be produced in observable collisions of elementary particles. For the next several years, ultra-high energy cosmic rays provide the most promising window on this phenomenon. In particular, cosmic neutrinos can produce black holes deep in the Earth's atmosphere, leading to quasi-horizontal giant air showers. We determine the sensitivity of cosmic ray detectors to black hole production and compare the results to other probes of extra dimensions. With n \ge 4 extra dimensions, current bounds on deeply penetrating showers from AGASA already provide the most stringent bound on low-scale gravity, requiring a fundamental Planck scale M_D > 1.3 - 1.8 TeV. The Auger Observatory will probe M_D as large as 4 TeV and may observe on the order of a hundred black holes in 5 years. We also consider the implications of angular momentum and possible exponentially suppressed parton cross sections; including these effects, large black hole rates are still possible. Finally, we demonstrate that even if only a few black hole events are observed, a standard model interpretation may be excluded by comparison with Earth-skimming neutrino rates.Comment: 30 pages, 18 figures; v2: discussion of gravitational infall, AGASA and Fly's Eye comparison added; v3: Earth-skimming results modified and strengthened, published versio

Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Fluxes and Their Constraints

Applying our recently developed propagation code we review extragalactic neutrino fluxes above 10^{14} eV in various scenarios and how they are constrained by current data. We specifically identify scenarios in which the cosmogenic neutrino flux, produced by pion production of ultra high energy cosmic rays outside their sources, is considerably higher than the "Waxman-Bahcall bound". This is easy to achieve for sources with hard injection spectra and luminosities that were higher in the past. Such fluxes would significantly increase the chances to detect ultra-high energy neutrinos with experiments currently under construction or in the proposal stage.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures, version published in Phys.Rev.

Effects of charged Higgs bosons in the deep inelastic process \nu_{\tau} {\cal N} \to \tau^- X and the possibility of detecting tau-neutrinos at cosmic neutrino detectors

We study the deep inelastic process $\nu_{\tau} + {\cal N} \to \tau^{-} + X$ (with ${\cal N} \equiv (n+p)/2$ an isoscalar nucleon), in the context of the two Higgs doublet model type II (2HDM(II)). We discuss the contribution to the total cross section of diagrams, in which a charged Higgs boson is exchanged. We present results which show the strong dependence of such contribution on $\tan\beta$ and $M_{H^{\pm}}$. We show that in the region $50 \leq \tan\beta \leq 200$ and 90 GeV $\leq M_{H^{\pm}}\leq$ 600 GeV with the additional experimental constraint on the involved model parameters $M_{H^{\pm}} \geq 1.5 \times \tan\beta$ GeV, the contribution of the charged Higgs boson exchange diagrams to the cross section of the charged current inclusive $\nu_{\tau} {\cal N}$ collision can become important. We obtain that this contribution for an inclusive dispersion generated through the collision of an ultrahigh energy tau-neutrino with $E_{\nu} \approx 10^{20}$ eV on a target nucleon can be larger than the value of the contribution of the $W^{\pm}$ exchange diagrams, provided that $M_{H^{\pm}} \approx 300$ GeV and $\tan\beta \approx 200$. Such enhancement and the induced variation on the mean inelasticity $^{CC}$ could lead to sizeable effects in the acceptance of cosmic tau-neutrino detectors at experiments such as HiRes, PAO, and the CRTNT, which are anchored to the ground, and at experiments such as EUSO and OWL, which are proposed to orbit around the Earth.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, 8 table