Neutrino Signatures from the First Stars

Abstract

Evidence from the WMAP polarization data indicates that the Universe may have been reionized at very high redshift. It is often suggested that the ionizing UV flux originates from an early population of massive or very massive stars. Depending on their mass, such stars can explode either as type II supernovae or pair-instability supernovae, or may entirely collapse into a black hole. The resulting neutrino emission can be quite different in each case. We consider here the relic neutrino background produced by an early burst of Population III stars coupled with a normal mode of star formation at lower redshift. The computation is performed in the framework of hierarchical structure formation and is based on cosmic star formation histories constrained to reproduce the observed star formation rate at redshift z \la 6, the observed chemical abundances in damped Lyman alpha absorbers and in the intergalactic medium, and to allow for an early reionization of the Universe at z \sim 10-20. We find that although the high redshift burst of Population III stars does lead to an appreciable flux of neutrinos at relatively low energy (E_ν\approx 1 MeV), the observable neutrino flux is dominated by the normal mode of star formation. We also find that predicted fluxes are at the present level of the SuperK limit. As a consequence, the supernova relic neutrino background has a direct impact on models of chemical evolution and/or supernova dynamics.

22 pages, 13 eps figures

References in corpus (8)

• On the evolution of star forming galaxies
• High Redshift Supernova Rates
• Neutrino Mixing and Nucleosynthesis in Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Relic neutrino background from cosmological supernovae
• The Concordance Cosmic Star Formation Rate: Implications from and for the Supernova Neutrino and Gamma Ray Backgrounds
• The diffuse supernova neutrino flux, supernova rate and SN1987A
• Diffuse Cosmic Neutrino Background from Population III Stars
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Cited by in corpus (19)

• On the normalisation of the cosmic star formation history
• The Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background
• Diffuse supernova neutrinos at underground laboratories
• Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background from extensive core-collapse simulations of $8$-$100{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ progenitors
• Gravitational Waves from the First Stars
• Hierarchical Growth and Cosmic Star Formation: Enrichment, Outflows and Supernova Rates
• Dips in the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background
• Synoptic Sky Surveys and the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background: Removing Astrophysical Uncertainties and Revealing Invisible Supernovae
• Neutrino Spectrum from SN 1987A and from Cosmic Supernovae
• Impact of binary interactions on the diffuse supernova neutrino background
• Direct Measurement of Supernova Neutrino Emission Parameters with a Gadolinium-Enhanced Super-Kamiokande Detector
• Upper limits on the diffuse supernova neutrino flux from the SuperKamiokande data
• New Test of Supernova Electron Neutrino Emission using Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Sensitivity to the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background
• Diffuse neutrino background from past core-collapse supernovae
• Impact of late-time neutrino emission on the diffuse supernova neutrino background
• Impact of Rotation on Neutrino Emission and Relic Neutrino Background from Population III Stars
• Diffuse supernova neutrino background with up-to-date star formation rate measurements and long-term multidimensional supernova simulations
• The Cosmic Stellar Birth and Death Rates
• The Relic Neutrino Backround from the First Stars