EeV neutrinos associated with UHECR sources

Abstract

Electromagnetic energy losses of charged pions and muons suppress the expected high energy, >1E18 eV, neutrino emission from sources of ultrahigh energy, >1E19 eV, cosmic-rays. We show here that >1E19 eV photons produced in such sources by neutral pion decay may escape the sources, thanks to the Klein-Nishina suppression of the pair production cross section, and produce muon pairs in interactions with the cosmic microwave background. The flux of muon decay neutrinos, which are expected to be associated in time and direction with the electromagnetic emission from the sources, may reach a few percent of the Waxman-Bahcall bound. Their detection may allow one to directly identify the sources of >1E19 eV cosmic-rays, and will provide the most stringent constraints on quantum-gravity-induced Lorentz violation.

4 pages, minor changes, reference added

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Prompt GeV Emission from Residual Collisions in GRB Outflows: Evidence from Fermi Observations of GRB 080916c
• High-Energy Emission Induced by Ultra-High-Energy Photons as a Probe of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray Accelerators Embedded in the Cosmic Web
• Fermi Limit on the Neutrino Flux from Gamma-ray Bursts