2004/04/03 by Guang-Jiong Ni, Ni, Guang-Jiong
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-ph/0404030
7 pages, 4 figures, revtex4
arxiv created 2004/04/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
In the cosmic ray spectrum, there are two knees (abrupt changes of slopes) located around the energies Eth=1015.5 eV and 1017.8 eV respectively. Based on the pioneering work by Kostelecky and Ehrlich, we ascribe the first knee to a sudden opening of the reaction channel νe+p→ n+e+ when the proton has a velocity just exceeding a critical value and so can absorb a tachyonic neutrino νe in the form of an antineutrino νe. Similarly, the second knee is triggered by the reaction νμ+p→ Λ+μ+. The fitting of these two values of Eth gives the tachyon mass of νe and νμ being 0.54 eV/c2 and 0.48 eV/c2 respectively, which are in favor of a minimal three-flavor model for tachyonic neutrino with one parameter δ being estimated to be δ=0.34 eV.