The diffuse neutrino flux from the inner Galaxy: constraints from very high energy gamma-ray observations

Abstract

Recently, the MILAGRO collaboration reported on the detection of a diffuse multi-TeV emission from a region of the Galactic disk close to the inner Galaxy. The emission is in excess of what is predicted by conventional models for cosmic ray propagation, which are tuned to reproduce the spectrum of cosmic rays observed locally. By assuming that the excess detected by MILAGRO is of hadronic origin and that it is representative for the whole inner Galactic region, we estimate the expected diffuse flux of neutrinos from a region of the Galactic disk with coordinates $-40^{\circ }<l<40^{\circ }$. Our estimate has to be considered as the maximal expected neutrino flux compatible with all the available gamma ray data, since any leptonic contribution to the observed gamma-ray emission would lower the neutrino flux. The diffuse flux of neutrinos, if close to the maximum allowed level, may be detected by a km${}^3$--scale detector located in the northern hemisphere. A detection would unambiguously reveal the hadronic origin of the diffuse gamma-ray emission.

submitted to Astroparticle Physics

References in corpus (4)

• Energy spectra of gamma-rays, electrons and neutrinos produced at proton-proton interactions in the very high energy regime
• Discovery of Very-High-Energy Gamma-Rays from the Galactic Centre Ridge
• Discovery of TeV Gamma-Ray Emission from the Cygnus Region of the Galaxy
• A Measurement of the Spatial Distribution of Diffuse TeV Gamma Ray Emission from the Galactic Plane with Milagro

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• High-Energy Neutrino Astrophysics: Status and Perspectives
• The theory of cosmic-ray scattering on pre-existing MHD modes meets data
• IceCube Sensitivity for Neutrino Flux from Fermi Blazars in Quiescent States
• Gamma Ray Astronomy and the Origin of Galactic Cosmic Rays
• Neutrinos from the gamma-ray source eHWC J1825-134: predictions for Km${}^3$ detectors