Neutrino background flux from sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray nuclei

2010/03/25 by Kohta Murase, J. F. Beacom, John F. Beacom · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Flux (metallurgy) #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Nuclear physics #Nuclear reaction #Particle physics #Photodisintegration #Physics #Pierre Auger Observatory #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.HE #hep-ph #nucl-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.81.123001

published as Phys.Rev.D 81 (2010) 123001 · 7 pages, 3 figures

arxiv created 2010/03/25 · openalex publication_date 2010/06/01 · arxiv updated 2016/03/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Motivated by Pierre Auger Observatory results favoring a heavy nuclear composition for ultrahigh-energy (UHE) cosmic rays, we investigate implications for the cumulative neutrino background. The requirement that nuclei not be photodisintegrated constrains their interactions in sources, therefore limiting neutrino production via photomeson interactions. Assuming a dN_CR/dE_CR\ensuremath∝E_CR^\ensuremath-2 injection spectrum and photodisintegration via the giant dipole resonance, the background flux of neutrinos is lower than E_\ensuremathν²\ensuremathΦ_\ensuremathν\ensuremath∼10^\ensuremath-9 GeV cm^\ensuremath-2 s^\ensuremath-1 sr^\ensuremath-1 if UHE nuclei ubiquitously survive in their sources. This is smaller than the analogous Waxman-Bahcall flux for UHE protons by about 1 order of magnitude and is below the projected IceCube sensitivity. If IceCube detects a neutrino background, it could be due to other sources, e.g., hadronuclear interactions of lower-energy cosmic rays; if it does not, this supports our strong restrictions on the properties of sources of UHE nuclei.

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Cited by

• IceCube and searches for astrophysical sources