SEARCH FOR POINT-LIKE SOURCES OF ULTRA-HIGH ENERGY NEUTRINOS AT THE PIERRE AUGER OBSERVATORY AND IMPROVED LIMIT ON THE DIFFUSE FLUX OF TAU NEUTRINOS

Journal Article · Fri Aug 10 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/755/1/L4· OSTI ID:22047621

Abreu, P; Andringa, S ^[1]; Aglietta, M ^[2]; Ahlers, M ^[3]; Ahn, E J ^[4]; Albuquerque, I F. M. ^[5]; Allard, D ^[6]; Allekotte, I ^[7]; Allen, J ^[8]; Allison, P ^[9]; Almela, A ^[10]; Alvarez Castillo, J ^[11]; Alvarez-Muniz, J ^[12]; Alves Batista, R ^[13]; Ambrosio, M; Aramo, C ^[14]; Aminaei, A ^[15]; Anchordoqui, L ^[16]; Antici'c, T ^[17]; others, and

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1. LIP and Instituto Superior Tecnico, Technical University of Lisbon (Portugal)
2. Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (INAF), Universita di Torino and Sezione INFN, Torino (Italy)
3. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
4. Fermilab, Batavia, IL (United States)
5. Universidade de Sao Paulo, Instituto de Fisica, Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)
6. Laboratoire AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC), Universite Paris 7, CNRS-IN2P3, Paris (France)
7. Centro Atomico Bariloche and Instituto Balseiro (CNEA-UNCuyo-CONICET), San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentina)
8. New York University, New York, NY (United States)
9. Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)
10. Universidad Tecnologica Nacional - Facultad Regional Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
11. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico, D.F. (Mexico)
12. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
13. Universidade Estadual de Campinas, IFGW, Campinas, SP (Brazil)
14. Universita di Napoli 'Federico II' and Sezione INFN, Napoli (Italy)
15. IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands)
16. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (United States)
17. Rudjer Boskovi'c Institute, 10000 Zagreb (Croatia)

The surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory can detect neutrinos with energy E{sub {nu}} between 10{sup 17} eV and 10{sup 20} eV from point-like sources across the sky south of +55 Degree-Sign and north of -65 Degree-Sign declinations. A search has been performed for highly inclined extensive air showers produced by the interaction of neutrinos of all flavors in the atmosphere (downward-going neutrinos), and by the decay of tau leptons originating from tau neutrino interactions in Earth's crust (Earth-skimming neutrinos). No candidate neutrinos have been found in data up to 2010 May 31. This corresponds to an equivalent exposure of {approx}3.5 years of a full surface detector array for the Earth-skimming channel and {approx}2 years for the downward-going channel. An improved upper limit on the diffuse flux of tau neutrinos has been derived. Upper limits on the neutrino flux from point-like sources have been derived as a function of the source declination. Assuming a differential neutrino flux k{sub PS} {center_dot} E {sup -2}{sub {nu}} from a point-like source, 90% confidence level upper limits for k{sub PS} at the level of Almost-Equal-To 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -7} and 2.5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -6} GeV cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} have been obtained over a broad range of declinations from the searches for Earth-skimming and downward-going neutrinos, respectively.

• OSTI ID: 22047621
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 755, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
COSMIC NEUTRINOS
EARTH CRUST
EV RANGE
EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS
FLAVOR MODEL
GEV RANGE
NEUTRINO REACTIONS
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
TAU NEUTRINOS
TAU PARTICLES