Matt Kistler Ohio State University In collaboration with John Beacom

Transcription

1 Prospects for Galactic TeV Neutrino Astronomy Matt Kistler Ohio State University In collaboration with John Beacom Photo: HESS

2 Zwicky s Contributions to GLCW8 COSMIC RA YS FROM SUPER-NO VAE By W. BAADE AND F. ZWICKY MOUNT WILSON OBSERVATORY, CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON AND CALI- FORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, PASADENA Communicated March 19, 1934

3 The Spectrum of Cosmic Rays These must all be produced somewhere High Energy Ultra- High Energy

4 Cosmic rays, gamma rays, and neutrinos First uncover gamma rays and neutrinos from the large, isotropic cosmic ray flux Then use them to find the sources of the cosmic rays HESS

5 TeV gamma-ray astronomy Air Cherenkov Technique see Wei Cui s talk later for much more... W. Hofmann ICRC 2005

6 Air Cherenkov Telescopes HESS VERITAS

7 Why bother with neutrinos? Inverse Compton Proton-Proton Scattering

8 A plethora of TeV sources Vela Junior

9 A plethora of TeV sources Galactic Center point source Galactic Center Diffuse

10 A plethora of TeV sources HESS J WR 20a? preliminary W. Hofmann - Texas MASS

11 Basics of (muon) neutrino detection Muon neutrino interacts in ice/water/rock Relativistic muon produces Cherenkov radiation and suffers radiative losses PMTs detect photons and reconstruct direction and energy of muon Background from downgoing shower muons and atmospheric neutrinos Simulated IceCube muon event

12 Shower events Electron or tau neutrino interacts in the detector Rapid radiative losses result in a ball of light Better energy resolution than muons, but less angular resolution Makes it possible (in principle) to measure neutrino flavor ratio Simulated IceCube shower event

13 Neutrinos as weapons Gandhi, Quigg, Reno, Sarcevic (1998) d!/de [TeV -1 cm -2 s -1 ] Neutrinos also have benefits of increasing muon range, continuous operation, and rapidly falling background E [TeV] Kistler, Beacom (2006)

14 Gigaton Weak Force Converters IceCube (under construction) Tested techniques Full-time coverage of northern sky U. Katz

15 Gigaton Weak Force Converters 3 Mediterranean km (in design) Improved shower angular resolution Access to southern sky ANTARES

16 Vela Junior 10 ATM Bright, shell-type SNR 50 TeV 25 TeV 10 TeV Southern sky source N( > E µ ) [km -2 yr -1 ] Vela Jr - Muons 1 10 E µ [TeV] Kistler, Beacom (2006) Aschenbach (1998)

17 Vela Junior Showers Potential for shower measurements and possibly a neutrino map 10 ATM 50 TeV 25 TeV 10 TeV N( > E sh ) [km -3 yr -1 ] 1 U. Katz (2006) Vela Jr - Showers E sh [TeV] Kistler, Beacom (2006)

18 GCD and RX J Diffuse TeV emission from Galactic Center well-correlated with molecular clouds (most likely pionic) RX J (Alvarez-Muniz and Halzen (2002); Costantini and Vissani (2005)) Potential for a few events/year

19 Expected yearly rates Several Few Any? Vela Junior MGRO J2019 Crab RX J1713 GC Region Many other TeV sources may also be prospective neutrino sources, but the above are the most promising (see Kistler and Beacom (2006) and Beacom and Kistler (2007) for more)

20 Summary - Observable Fluxes TeV gamma-ray observations offer enticing clues towards the origin of Galactic cosmic rays Measurement of neutrino fluxes will clinch both cosmic-ray birthplaces and gamma-ray production