The Z-burst mechanism invoked to explain ultra-high energy cosmic rays is severely constrained by measurements of the cosmic gamma-ray background by EGRET. We discuss the case of optically thick sources and show that jets and hot spots of active galaxies cannot provide the optical depth required to suppress the photon flux. Other extragalactic accelerators (AGN cores and sites of gamma ray bursts), if they are optically thick, could be tested by future measurements of the secondary neutrino flux.
Neutrinos offer a window to physics beyond the Standard Model. In particular, high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, with TeV-PeV energies, may provide evidence of new, secret neutrino-neutrino interactions that are stronger than ordinary weak interactions. During their propagation over cosmological distances, high-energy neutrinos could interact with the cosmic neutrino background via secret interactions, developing characteristic energy-dependent features in their observed energy distribution. For the first time, we look for signatures of secret neutrino interactions in the diffuse flux of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, using 6 years of publicly available IceCube High Energy Starting Events (HESE). We find no significant evidence for secret neutrino interactions, but place competitive upper limits on the coupling strength of the new mediator through which they occur, in the mediator mass range of 1-100 MeV.
Ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrinos and cosmic rays initiate particle cascades underneath the Moons surface. These cascades have a negative charge excess and radiate Cherenkov radio emission in a process known as the Askaryan effect. The optimal frequency window for observation of these pulses with radio telescopes on the Earth is around 150 MHz. By observing the Moon with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope array we are able to set a new limit on the UHE neutrino flux. The PuMa II backend is used to monitor the Moon in 4 frequency bands between 113 and 175 MHz with a sampling frequency of 40 MHz. The narrowband radio interference is digitally filtered out and the dispersive effect of the Earths ionosphere is compensated for. A trigger system is implemented to search for short pulses. By inserting simulated pulses in the raw data, the detection efficiency for pulses of various strength is calculated. With 47.6 hours of observation time, we are able to set a limit on the UHE neutrino flux. This new limit is an order of magnitude lower than existing limits. In the near future, the digital radio array LOFAR will be used to achieve an even lower limit.
The standard perception is that the detection of high energy (TeV energies and above) neutrinos from an astrophysical object is a conclusive evidence for the presence of hadronic cosmic rays at the source. In the present work we demonstrate that TeV neutrinos can also be originated from energetic electrons via electromagnetic interactions in different potential cosmic ray sources with flux levels comparable to that of the hadronic originated neutrinos at high energies. Our findings thus imply that at least a part of the neutrinos observed by Icecube observatory may be originated from energetic electrons. The present analysis further suggests that only a combine study of TeV gamma rays and neutrinos over a wide energy range from an astrophysical object can unambiguously identify the nature of their parents, hadrons or leptons.
We study the production of cosmogenic neutrinos and photons during the extragalactic propagation of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). For a wide range of models in cosmological evolution of source luminosity, composition and maximum energy we calculate the expected flux of cosmogenic secondaries by normalizing our cosmic ray output to experimental spectra and comparing the diffuse flux of GeV-TeV gamma-rays to the experimental one measured by the Fermi satellite. Most of these models yield significant neutrino fluxes for current experiments like IceCube or Pierre Auger. Furthermore, we discuss the possibilities of signing the presence of UHE proton sources either within or outside the cosmic ray horizon using neutrinos or photons observations even if the cosmic ray composition becomes heavier at the highest energies. We discuss the possible constraints that could be brought on the UHECR origin from the different messengers and energy ranges.
We present a strong hint of a connection between high energy $gamma$-ray emitting blazars, very high energy neutrinos, and ultra high energy cosmic rays. We first identify potential hadronic sources by filtering $gamma$-ray emitters %from existing catalogs that are in spatial coincidence with the high energy neutrinos detected by IceCube. The neutrino filtered $gamma$-ray emitters are then correlated with the ultra high energy cosmic rays from the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array by scanning in $gamma$-ray flux ($F_{gamma}$) and angular separation ($theta$) between sources and cosmic rays. A maximal excess of 80 cosmic rays (42.5 expected) is found at $thetaleq10^{circ}$ from the neutrino filtered $gamma$-ray emitters selected from the second hard {it Fermi}-LAT catalogue (2FHL) and for $F_gammaleft(>50:mathrm{GeV}right)geq1.8times10^{-11}:mathrm{ph},mathrm{cm}^{-2},mathrm{s}^{-1}$. The probability for this to happen is $2.4 times 10^{-5}$, which translates to $sim 2.4 times 10^{-3}$ after compensation for all the considered trials. No excess of cosmic rays is instead observed for the complement sample of $gamma$-ray emitters (i.e. not in spatial connection with IceCube neutrinos). A likelihood ratio test comparing the connection between the neutrino filtered and the complement source samples with the cosmic rays favours a connection between neutrino filtered emitters and cosmic rays with a probability of $sim1.8times10^{-3}$ ($2.9sigma)$ after compensation for all the considered trials. The neutrino filtered $gamma$-ray sources that make up the cosmic rays excess are blazars of the high synchrotron peak type. More statistics is needed to further investigate these sources as candidate cosmic ray and neutrino emitters.