Cosmic and Galactic Neutrino Backgrounds from Thermonuclear Sources

Abstract

We estimate energy spectra and fluxes at the Earth's surface of the cosmic and Galactic neutrino backgrounds produced by thermonuclear reactions in stars. The extra-galactic component is obtained by combining the most recent estimates of the cosmic star formation history and the stellar initial mass function with accurate theoretical predictions of the neutrino yields all over the thermonuclear lifetime of stars of different masses. Models of the structure and evolution of the Milky Way are used to derive maps of the expected flux generated by Galactic sources as a function of sky direction. The predicted neutrino backgrounds depend only slightly on model parameters. In the relevant 50 keV-10 MeV window, the total flux of cosmic neutrinos ranges between 20 and 65 particles per square cm per s. Neutrinos reaching the Earth today have been typically emitted at redshift z~2. Their energy spectrum peaks at E~0.1-0.3 MeV. The energy and entropy densities of the cosmic background are negligible with respect to the thermal contribution of relic neutrinos originated in the early universe. In every sky direction, the cosmic background is outnumbered by the Galactic one, whose integrated flux amounts to 300-1000 particles per square cm per s. The emission from stars in the Galactic disk contributes more than 95 per cent of the signal.

arXiv comment30 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physics, version with higher quality figures available at http://www.exp-astro.phys.ethz.ch/porciani/neutrino.pdf

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