paper

High-energy Neutrino Astronomy: The Cosmic Ray Connection

arXiv:astro-ph/0204527 · doi:10.1088/0034-4885/65/7/201

Abstract

This is a review of neutrino astronomy anchored to the observational fact that Nature accelerates protons and photons to energies in excess of and eV, respectively. Although the discovery of cosmic rays dates back close to a century, we do not know how and where they are accelerated. Basic elementary-particle physics dictates a universal upper limit on their energy of eV, the so-called Greisen-Kuzmin-Zatsepin cutoff; however, particles in excess of this energy have been observed by all experiments, adding one more puzzle to the cosmic ray mystery. Mystery is fertile ground for progress: we will review the facts as well as the speculations about the sources including gamma ray bursts, blazars and top-down scenarios. The important conclusion is that, independently of the specific blueprint of the source, it takes a kilometer-scale neutrino observatory to detect the neutrino beam associated with the highest energy cosmic rays and gamma rays. We also briefly review the ongoing efforts to commission such instrumentation.

83 pages, 18 figures, submitted to Reports on Progress in Physics

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