Limit on the diffuse flux of ultrahigh energy tau neutrinos with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
Contribuinte(s) |
UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO |
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Data(s) |
19/04/2012
19/04/2012
2009
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Resumo |
Data collected at the Pierre Auger Observatory are used to establish an upper limit on the diffuse flux of tau neutrinos in the cosmic radiation. Earth-skimming nu(tau) may interact in the Earth's crust and produce a tau lepton by means of charged-current interactions. The tau lepton may emerge from the Earth and decay in the atmosphere to produce a nearly horizontal shower with a typical signature, a persistent electromagnetic component even at very large atmospheric depths. The search procedure to select events induced by tau decays against the background of normal showers induced by cosmic rays is described. The method used to compute the exposure for a detector continuously growing with time is detailed. Systematic uncertainties in the exposure from the detector, the analysis, and the involved physics are discussed. No tau neutrino candidates have been found. For neutrinos in the energy range 2x10(17) eV < E(nu)< 2x10(19) eV, assuming a diffuse spectrum of the form E(nu)(-2), data collected between 1 January 2004 and 30 April 2008 yield a 90% confidence-level upper limit of E(nu)(2)dN(nu tau)/dE(nu)< 9x10(-8) GeV cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1). Comision Nacional de Energıa Atomica, Argentina Fundacion Antorchas Gobierno de la Provincia de Mendoza, Municipalidad de Malargue, Argentina NDM Holdings Valle Las Leñas, Argentina Australian Research Council (ARC) Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia (MCT), Brazil Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic [AVCR AV0Z10100502, AV0Z10100522, GAAV KJB300100801, KJB100100904, MSMT-CR LA08016, LC527, 1M06002, MSM0021620859] Centre de Calcul IN2P3/CNRS, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France Conseil Regional Ile-de-France, Departement Physique Nucleaire et Corpusculaire (PNC-IN2P3/CNRS), France Departement Sciences de l’Univers (SDU-INSU/CNRS), France Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Germany Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft (DFG), Germany Finanzministerium Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren (HGF), Germany Ministerium fur Wissenschaft und Forschung, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany Ministerium fur Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universita e della Ricerca (MIUR), Italy Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologıa (CONACYT), Mexico Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Ondezoek (NWO), Netherlands Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), Netherlands Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland [1 P03 D 014 30, N202 090 31/0623, PAP/218/2006] Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal Ministry for Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Slovenian Research Agency, Slovenia Comunidad de Madrid Consejerıa de Educacion de la Comunidad de Castilla La Mancha FEDER funds Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Xunta de Galicia, Spain Science and Technology Facilities Council, United Kingdom Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-AC02-07CH11359] National Science Foundation (NSF) [0450696] The Grainger Foundation USA ALFA-EC/HELEN European Union [MEIF-CT-2005-025057] UNESCO |
Identificador |
PHYSICAL REVIEW D, NEW YORK, v.79, 2009 1550-7998 http://producao.usp.br/handle/BDPI/16582 10.1103/PhysRevD.79.102001 |
Idioma(s) |
eng |
Publicador |
AMER PHYSICAL SOC NEW YORK |
Relação |
Physical Review D |
Direitos |
restrictedAccess Copyright AMER PHYSICAL SOC |
Palavras-Chave | #ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI #COSMIC-RAYS #AIR-SHOWERS #PERFORMANCE #ASTROPHYSICS #OSCILLATIONS #PROPAGATION #TELESCOPES #SPECTRUM #SEARCH #Astronomy & Astrophysics #Physics, Particles & Fields |
Tipo |
article original article publishedVersion |