124377961
A neutrino burst and gravitational wave from supernova explosions
43135563
High-energy neutrinos from reverse shocks in choked and successful relativistic jets
Highly relativistic jets are a key element of current gamma-ray burst models, where the jet kinetic energy is converted to radiation energy at optically thin shocks. High-energy neutrinos are also expected, from interactions of protons accelerated in the same shocks. Here we revisit the early evolution of a relativistic jet, while the jet is still inside the star, and investigate its neutrino emission. In particular we study propagation of mildly relativistic and ultrarelativistic jets through a type Ib progenitor, and follow reverse shocks as the jets cross the star. We show that protons can be accelerated to 10^4–10^5 GeV at reverse shocks, and efficiently produce mesons. The mesons experience significant cooling, suppressing subsequent neutrino emission. We show, however, that the neutrino yield from the reverse shock is still reasonably large, especially for low-luminosity and long-duration jets, where meson cooling is less severe. We discuss implications of our results in the context of neutrinos from choked jets, which are completely shock heated and do not break out of the star. From a choked jet with isotropic equivalent energy of 10^53 erg at 10 Mpc, we expect ~20 neutrino events at IceCube.
125796612
Klein-Nishina effects on Synchrotron and Synchrotron self-Compton spectrum
15899702
Does regenerated emission change the high-energy signal from gamma-ray burst afterglows?
We study regenerated high-energy emission from the γ-ray burst (GRB) afterglows, and compare its flux with the direct component from the same afterglow. When the intrinsic emission spectrum extends to the TeV region, these very high-energy photons are significantly absorbed by the cosmic infrared background (CIB) radiation field, creating electron-positron pairs; since these pairs are highly energetic, they can scatter the cosmic microwave background radiation up to GeV energies, which may change the intrinsic afterglow light curve in the GeV region. Using the theoretical models given in the literature and a reasonable choice of the relevant parameters, we calculate the expected light curve due to the regeneration mechanism. We find that the regenerated emission could only slightly change the original light curve, even if we take a rather large value for the CIB density, independently of the density profile of the surrounding medium, i.e. constant or wind-like profile. This ensures reliable estimation of the intrinsic GRB parameters when high-energy observation is accessible, regardless of the large amount of uncertainty concerning the CIB density as well as extragalactic magnetic field strength.
73520402
Resonant Spin-Flavor Conversion of Supernova Neutrinos
We investigate resonant spin-flavor (RSF) conversions of supernova neutrinos which are induced by the interaction of neutrino magnetic moment and supernova magnetic fields. From the formulation which includes all three-flavor neutrinos and anti-neutrinos, we give a new crossing diagram that includes not only ordinary MSW resonance but also magnetically-induced RSF effect. With the diagram, it is found that four conversions occur in supernova, two are induced by the RSF effect and two by the pure MSW. We also numerically calculate neutrino conversions in supernova matter, using neutrino mixing parameters inferred from recent experimental results and a realistic supernova progenitor model. The results indicate that until 0.5 seconds after core bounce, the RSF-induced νe ↔ ντ transition occurs efficiently (adiabatic resonance), when μν ∼ 10−12μB(B0/5 × 109G)−1, where B0 is the strength of the magnetic field at the surface of iron core. We also evaluate the energy spectrum as a function of μνB0 at the SuperKamiokande detector and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory using the calculated conversion probabilities, and find that the spectral deformation might have possibility to provide useful information on neutrino magnetic moment as well as magnetic field strength in supernovae.1 1 Reference: S. Ando and K. Sato, Phys. Rev. D 67, 023004 (2003).
11622261
Dark matter annihilation or unresolved astrophysical sources? Anisotropy probe of the origin of the cosmic gamma-ray background
The origin of the cosmic gamma-ray background (CGB) is a longstanding mystery in high-energy astrophysics. Possible candidates include ordinary astrophysical objects such as unresolved blazars, as well as more exotic processes such as dark matter annihilation. While it would be difficult to distinguish them from the mean intensity data alone, one can use anisotropy data instead. We investigate the CGB anisotropy both from unresolved blazars and dark matter annihilation (including contributions from dark matter substructures), and we find that the angular power spectra from these sources are very different. We then focus on detectability of dark matter annihilation signals using the anisotropy data by treating the unresolved blazar component as a known background. We find that the dark matter signature should be detectable in the angular power spectrum of the CGB from two-year all-sky observations with the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), as long as the dark matter annihilation contributes to a reasonable fraction, e.g., >~0.3, of the CGB at around 10 GeV. We conclude that the anisotropy measurement of the CGB with GLAST should be a powerful tool for revealing the CGB origin, and potentially for the first detection of dark matter annihilation.
15737183
Analysis of ordinary and radiative muon capture in liquid hydrogen
The experimental data on the ordinary muon capture (OMC) rate and the partial branching ratio of radiative muon capture (RMC) in liquid hydrogen are simultaneously analyzed using theoretical estimates for the atomic OMC rates obtained in chiral perturbation theory using the most recent physical constants. Since both data have been obtained in a liquid hydrogen target, we reexamine the formulas for relating the atomic OMC and RMC rates to the liquid hydrogen OMC and RMC rates, respectively. Although the analysis is influenced significantly by the ambiguity in the molecular state population, we can conclude that, while the OMC data can be reproduced, it is not possible to explain the OMC and RMC data simultaneously.
639846
Neutrino-deuteron reactions at solar neutrino energies
Abstract In interpreting the SNO experiments, accurate estimates of the νd reaction cross sections are of great importance. We improve the previous estimates of our group by updating some of its inputs and by taking into account the results of a recent effective-field-theoretical calculation. The new cross sections are slightly (∼1%) larger than the previously reported values. It is shown to be reasonable to assign 1% uncertainty to the νd cross sections reported here; this error estimate does not include radiative corrections, for which we refer to the literature.
14614656
Radiative muon capture in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory
Abstract The radiative muon capture (RMC) on a proton is analyzed by means of heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The emitted photon energy spectrum is calculated and compared with the experimental data by taking the spin sum on the muonic atom states. We find that one-loop order corrections to the tree order amplitude modify the photon spectrum by less than five percent. This calculation supports that the theory is under a quantitative control as far as the chiral perturbation expansion is concerned and indicates that the discrepancy between the pseudo-scalar coupling constant required by the RMC experiment and the one deduced from ordinary muon capture, the value of which is also supported by chiral perturbation calculations, will remain unexplained from the theoretical side.
18094401
Solar-neutrino reactions on deuteron in effective field theory
Abstract The cross sections for low-energy neutrino–deuteron reactions are calculated within heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory employing a cut-off regularization scheme. The transition operators are derived up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in the Weinberg counting rules, while the nuclear matrix elements are evaluated using the wave functions generated by a high-quality phenomenological NN potential. With the adoption of the axial-current-four-nucleon coupling constant fixed from the tritium beta decay data, our calculation is free from unknown low-energy constants. Our results exhibit a high degree of stability against different choices of the cutoff parameter, a feature which indicates that, apart from radiative corrections, the uncertainties in the calculated cross sections are less than 1%.
17697036
Muon capture in hydrogen
Theoretical difficulties in reconciling the measured rates for ordinary and radiative muon capture are discussed, based on heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory. We also examine ambiguity in our analysis due to the formation of p$\mu$p molecules in the liquid hydrogen target.