2000/02/29 by Z. G. Dai, Zi-Gao Dai, T. Lu · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Compact star #Event (particle physics) #Galaxy #Gamma-ray burst #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Interstellar medium #Muon #Neutrino #Neutrino detector #Neutrino oscillation #Particle physics #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Stars #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/320056
13 pages, accepted for publication in ApJ
arxiv created 2000/12/11 · openalex publication_date 2001/04/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Currently popular models for progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the mergers of compact objects and the explosions of massive stars. These two cases have distinctive environments for GRBs: compact object mergers occur in the interstellar medium (ISM) and the explosions of massive stars occur in the preburst stellar wind. We here discuss neutrino afterglows from reverse shocks as a result of the interaction of relativistic fireballs with their surrounding wind matter. After comparing with the analytical result of Waxman & Bahcall for the homogeneous ISM case, we find that the differential spectrum of neutrinos with energy from ~3 × 10 15 to ~3 × 10 17 eV in the wind case is softer by 1 power of the energy than in the ISM case. Furthermore, the expected flux of upward moving muons produced by neutrino interactions below a detector on the surface of the Earth in the wind case is ~5 events yr -1 km -2 , which is about 1 order of magnitude larger than in the ISM case. In addition, these properties are independent of whether the fireballs are isotropic or beamed. Therefore, neutrino afterglows, if detected, may provide a way of distinguishing between GRB progenitor models based on the differential spectra of neutrinos and their event rates in a detector.