KTH/Nordita/SU seminar in Theoretical Physics

Ultra-high energy neutrinos from the atmosphere and the cosmos

by Rikard Enberg (Uppsala University)

Europe/Stockholm
FA31

FA31

Description
High energy cosmic rays that hit Earth, and astrophysical sources such as Gamma Ray Bursts, where protons are shock-accelerated to very high energies, are both examples of cosmic beam dump experiments. In the atmosphere the cosmic rays collide with the nuclei of the atmosphere and in astrophysical sources, protons collide with material present in the jet and the source. These high-energy collisions produce neutrinos through decays of produced hadrons. I will give a brief introduction, and then discuss our recent results for neutrino fluxes from the atmosphere and in astrophysical sources. We consider in particular neutrinos from charm quark production. Because of their larger masses and shorter lifetimes, charmed mesons are subject to much less hadronic and electromagnetic energy loss than pions and kaons, and even though the production cross section is much smaller, neutrinos from charm dominate at higher energies.