Connection between relic neutrinos and cosmic rays at > or approx. 10{sup 20} eV?
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235 (United States)
The observation of cosmic-ray events above the Greisen-Kuzmin-Zatsepin (GZK) cutoff of 5x10{sup 19} eV challenges orthodox modeling. We discuss a possible solution which uses Standard Model (SM) physics augmented only by < or approx. eV neutrino masses as suggested by solar, atmospheric, and terrestrial neutrino detection and the cosmological preference for a hot dark matter component. In this scheme, cosmic ray neutrinos from distant, highest-energy sources annihilate relatively nearby on the relic-neutrino background to produce 'Z-bursts', highly-collimated, highly-boosted ({gamma}{sub Z}{approx}10{sup 11}) hadronic jets. From the SM and hot Big Bang cosmology, the probability for each neutrino flavor at its resonant energy to annihilate within the halo of our galactic supercluster is likely within an order of magnitude of 1%. The kinematics of the annihilation are completely determined by the neutrino masses and the properties of the Z boson. The burst energy is E{sub R}=4 (eV/m{sub {nu}})x10{sup 21} eV, and the burst content includes, on average, thirty photons and 2.7 nucleons with super-GZK energies. Several tests of the neutrino annihilation hypothesis are indicated.
- OSTI ID:
- 21202124
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 444, Issue 1; Conference: 1. tropical workshop on particle physics and cosmology; 2. Latin American symposium on high energy physics, San Juan (Puerto Rico), 1-11 Apr 1998; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.56587; (c) 1998 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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