High energy neutrino emission from the earliest gamma-ray bursts

Shan Gao, Kenji Toma, Peter Mészáros

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

We discuss the high energy neutrino emission from gamma-ray bursts resulting from the earliest generation ("population III") stars forming in the Universe, whose core collapses into a black hole. These gamma-ray bursts are expected to produce a highly relativistic, magnetically dominated jet, where protons can be accelerated to ultrahigh energies. These interact with the photons produced by the jet, leading to ultrahigh energy photomeson neutrinos as well as secondary leptons and photons. The photon luminosity and the shock properties, and thus the neutrino spectrum, depend on the mass of the black holes as well as on the density of the surrounding external gas. We calculate the individual source neutrino spectral fluxes and the expected diffuse neutrino flux for various source parameters and evolution scenarios. Both the individual and diffuse signals appear detectable in the 1-300 PeV range with current and planned neutrino detectors such as IceCube and ARIANNA, provided the black hole mass is in excess of 30-100 solar masses. This provides a possible test for the debated mass of the progenitor stellar objects, as well as a probe for the early cosmological environment and the formation rate of the earliest structures.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number103004
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume83
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - May 18 2011

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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