Prospects for Galactic TeV Neutrino Astronomy Matt Kistler Ohio State University In collaboration with John Beacom Photo: HESS
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
The Spectrum of Cosmic Rays These must all be produced somewhere High Energy Ultra- High Energy
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
TeV gamma-ray astronomy Air Cherenkov Technique see Wei Cui s talk later for much more... W. Hofmann ICRC 2005
Air Cherenkov Telescopes HESS VERITAS
Why bother with neutrinos? Inverse Compton Proton-Proton Scattering
A plethora of TeV sources Vela Junior
A plethora of TeV sources Galactic Center point source Galactic Center Diffuse
A plethora of TeV sources HESS J1023-575 WR 20a? preliminary W. Hofmann - Texas 2006 2MASS
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
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
Neutrinos as weapons 10-10 10-11 Gandhi, Quigg, Reno, Sarcevic (1998) d!/de [TeV -1 cm -2 s -1 ] 10-12 10-13 10-14 10-15 Neutrinos also have benefits of increasing muon range, continuous operation, and rapidly falling background 10-16 10-17 1 10 100 1000 E [TeV] Kistler, Beacom (2006)
Gigaton Weak Force Converters IceCube (under construction) Tested techniques Full-time coverage of northern sky U. Katz
Gigaton Weak Force Converters 3 Mediterranean km (in design) Improved shower angular resolution Access to southern sky ANTARES
Vela Junior 10 ATM Bright, shell-type SNR 50 TeV 25 TeV 10 TeV Southern sky source N( > E µ ) [km -2 yr -1 ] 1 0.1 Vela Jr - Muons 1 10 E µ [TeV] Kistler, Beacom (2006) Aschenbach (1998)
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 0.1 1 10 100 E sh [TeV] Kistler, Beacom (2006)
GCD and RX J1713.7-3946 Diffuse TeV emission from Galactic Center well-correlated with molecular clouds (most likely pionic) RX J1713.7-3946 (Alvarez-Muniz and Halzen (2002); Costantini and Vissani (2005)) Potential for a few events/year
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)
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