Production of high-energy μneutrinos from young neutron stars

Abstract

Young, rapidly rotating neutron stars could accelerate protons to energies of $\sim 1$ PeV close to the stellar surface, which scatter with x-rays from the stellar surface through the $\Delta$ resonance and produce pions. The pions subsequently decay to produce muon neutrinos. We find that the energy spectrum of muon neutrinos consists of a sharp rise at $\sim 50$ TeV, corresponding to the onset of the resonance, above which the flux drops as ${\epsilon }_{\nu }^{-2}$ up to an upper-energy cut-off that is determined by either kinematics or by the maximum energy to which protons are accelerated. We predict event rates as high as 10-50 km${}^{-2}$ yr${}^{-1}$ from relatively young, close neutron stars. Such fluxes would be detectable by IceCube.

arXiv comment6 pages, 2 figures, to be published in the proceedings of the CRIS 2006 conference, Catania, Italy, May 29 - June 2, 2006

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