216054551
Constraints on decaying dark matter from the extragalactic gamma-ray background
If dark matter is unstable and the mass is within GeV-TeV regime, its decays produce high-energy photons that give contribution to the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGRB). We constrain dark matter decay by analyzing the 50-month EGRB data measured with Fermi satellite, for di ff erent decay channels motivated with several supersymmetric scenarios featuring R-parity violation. We adopt the latest astrophysical models for various source classes such as active galactic nuclei and star-forming galaxies, and take associated uncertainties properly into account. The lower limits for the lifetime are very stringent for a wide range of dark matter mass, excluding the lifetime shorter than 10(28) s for mass between a few hundred GeV and similar to 1 TeV, e.g., for b (b) over bar decay channel. Furthermore, most dark matter models that explain the anomalous positron excess are also excluded. These constraints are robust, being little dependent on astrophysical uncertainties, unlike other probes such as Galactic positrons or anti-protons.
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.
125701625
Gamma-ray burst neutrino background and star formation history in the universe
Abstract We estimate the flux of the GRB neutrino background and compute the event rate at SK and TITAND in the collapsar model, assuming that GRB formation rate is proportional to the star formation rate. We find that the predicted background neutrino flux is highly sensitive to unknown model parameters, mainly to the mass accretion rate, to the fraction of disk energy emitted in thermal neutrinos (as opposed to emission through electromagnetic processes), and to the fraction of collapsar events leading to GRBs. The predicted neutrino flux varies over many orders of magnitude as the values of unknown model parameters are varied. We investigate the detection possibility of thermal neutrinos from collapsars which lead to GRBs by TITAND. We find that the GRB neutrino background might be detected by TITAND within ∼ 10 yrs only for the optimistic cases in which the average mass-accretion rate is high (≥ a few M ⊙ s −1 ), and the probability that one collapsar generates a GRB is high ( φ = 0.5 − 1.0).
216052179
Constraints on the annihilation cross section of dark matter particles from anisotropies in the diffuse gamma-ray background measured with Fermi-LAT
Annihilation of dark matter particles in cosmological halos (including the halo of the Milky Way) contributes to the diffuse gamma-ray background (DGRB). As this contribution will appear anisotropic in the sky, one can use the angular power spectrum of anisotropies in the DGRB to constrain the properties of dark matter particles. By comparing the updated analytic model of the angular power spectrum of the DGRB from dark matter annihilation with the power spectrum recently measured from the 22-month data of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), we place upper limits on the annihilation cross section of dark matter particles as a function of dark matter masses. We find that the current data exclude (σv)≳10−25  cm3 s−1 for annihilation into bb¯ at the dark matter mass of 10 GeV, which is a factor of 3 times larger than the canonical cross section. The limits are weaker for larger dark matter masses. The limits can be improved further with more Fermi-LAT data as well as by using the power spectrum at lower multipoles (l≲150), which are currently not used due to a potential Galactic foreground contamination.
124377961
A neutrino burst and gravitational wave from supernova explosions
119067583
Supernova Relic Neutrinos and Observational Implications for Neutrino Oscillation
We investigate the flux and the event rate of supernova relic neutrinos (SRN) at the Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector for various neutrino oscillation models with parameters inferred from recent experimental results. We discuss the detectability of SRN at SK, comparing this SRN flux with other background neutrinos in more detail than previous studies, and it is found that in the energy range 17–25 MeV, ten-year observation might enable us to detect SRN signal (at one sigma level). We also set 90% C.L. upper limit on the SRN flux for various oscillation models using the recently released observational result by SK. In addition, we propose that the SRN observation can be used to set strong constraints on the neutrino decay models. Because of the long distance scale from cosmological supernovae to the Earth, SRN have possibility to provide much stronger limit than the present one obtained from solar neutrino observation. In the near future, further reduced upper limit is actually expected, when the current SK data are reanalyzed using some technique to reduce background events against the SRN signals. It is expected that the reduced upper limit is sufficient to provide useful implications for neutrino oscillation and decaying neutrinos.
16224074
Proton-proton fusion in pionless effective theory
Abstract The proton–proton fusion reaction, p p → d e + ν , is studied in pionless effective field theory (EFT) with di-baryon fields up to next-to leading order. With the aid of the di-baryon fields, the effective range corrections are naturally resummed up to the infinite order and thus the calculation is greatly simplified. Furthermore, the low-energy constant which appears in the axial-current-di-baryon–di-baryon contact vertex is fixed through the ratio of two- and one-body matrix elements which reproduces the tritium lifetime very precisely. As a result we can perform a parameter free calculation for the process. We compare our numerical result with those from the accurate potential model and previous pionless EFT calculations, and find a good agreement within the accuracy better than 1%.
14652153
Neutron–neutron fusion
Abstract The neutron–neutron fusion process, n n → d e ν , at very low neutron energies is studied in the framework of pionless effective field theory that incorporates dibaryon fields. The cross section and electron energy spectrum for this process are calculated up to next-to-leading order. We include the radiative corrections of O ( α ) calculated for the one-body transition amplitude. The precision of our theoretical estimates is found to be governed essentially by the accuracy with which the empirical values of the neutron–neutron scattering length and effective range are currently known. Also discussed is the precision of theoretical estimates of the transition rates of related electroweak processes in few-nucleon systems.
197438832
Radiative neutron capture on a proton at BBN energies
The total cross section for radiative neutron capture on a proton, $np \to d \gamma$, is evaluated at big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) energies. The electromagnetic transition amplitudes are calculated up to next-to leading order within the framework of pionless effective field theory with dibaryon fields. We also calculate the $d\gamma\to np$ cross section and the photon analyzing power for the $d\vec{\gamma}\to np$ process from the amplitudes. The values of low energy constants that appear in the amplitudes are estimated by a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis using the relevant low energy experimental data. Our result agrees well with those of other theoretical calculations except for the $np\to d\gamma$ cross section at some energies estimated by an R-matrix analysis. We also study the uncertainties in our estimation of the $np\to d\gamma$ cross section at relevant BBN energies and find that the estimated cross section is reliable to within $\sim$1% error.
14101191
The μ - d capture rate in effective field theory
Muon capture on the deuteron is studied in a framework that essentially incorporates heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBχ PT). It is found that by far the dominant contribution to µd capture comes from a region of the final three-body phasespace in which the energy of the two neutrons is sufficiently small for HB χ PT to be applicable. The single unknown low-energy constant having been fixed from the tritium beta decay rate, our calculation contains no free parameter. Our estimate of the µd capture rate is consistent with the existing data. The relation between µd capture and the νd reactions, which are important for the SNO experiments, is briefly discussed.  2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
119101312
Ordinary muon capture on a proton in manifestly Lorentz invariant baryon chiral perturbation theory
The amplitude for ordinary muon capture on the proton is evaluated, through the first four orders in the expansion parameter, in a manifestly Lorentz invariant form of baryon chiral perturbation theory. Expressions for the low energy constants in terms of physical quantities are obtained in each of the several renormalization schemes which have been proposed for forcing the relativistic approach to obey the same counting rules as obtained in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The advantages and disadvantages of these schemes are discussed, using the muon capture results as an example, with the aim of gaining insight as to which scheme is preferable for practical calculations.