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Oscillating Neutrinos from the Galactic Center Roland M THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT SERIES, 130:339È350, 2000 October ( 2000. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. OSCILLATING NEUTRINOS FROM THE GALACTIC CENTER ROLAND M. CROCKER,1 FULVIO MELIA,2,3 AND RAYMOND R. VOLKAS1 Received 1999 November 11; accepted 2000 June 1 ABSTRACT It has recently been demonstrated that the c-ray emission spectrum of the EGRET-identiÐed central Galactic source 2EG J1746-2852 can be well Ðtted by positing that these photons are generated by the decay of n0Ïs produced in p-p scattering at or near an energizing shock. Such scattering also produces charged pions which decay leptonically. The ratio of c-rays to neutrinos generated by the central Galac- tic source can be accurately determined, and a well-deÐned and potentially measurable high-energy neu- trino Ñux at Earth is unavoidable. An opportunity, therefore, to detect neutrino oscillations over an unprecedented scale is o†ered by this source. In this paper we assess the prospects for such an obser- vation with the generation of neutrinoC‹ erenkov telescopes now in the planning stage. We determine that the next generation of detectors may well Ðnd an oscillation signature in the Galactic center (GC) signal. Subject headings: acceleration of particles È cosmic rays È elementary particles È galaxies: nuclei È Galaxy: center È radiation mechanisms: nonthermal 1. INTRODUCTION synchrotron Ñux radiated by these charges is consistent 1.1. T he Neutrino Source with the radio spectrum of Sgr A East observed with the The dominant radio-emitting structures at the Galactic VLA. In fact, such relativistic electrons and positrons would center (GC) are the supernova remnant (SNR)Èlike shell Sgr also radiate by bremsstrahlung and undergo inverse A East, a three-armed spiral of ionized gas dubbed Sgr A Compton scattering in such a way as to self-consistently West, and, embedded at the center of Sgr A West, the explain the entire broadband emission spectrum of Sgr A Galactic dynamical nucleus, Sgr A*, thought to be a East, ranging from GHz frequencies all the way up to the ^ ] 6 massive (M 2.6 10 M_) black hole (Haller et al. 1996; TeV energies observed by Whipple (Buckley et al 1997). For Genzel et al. 1997; Ghez et al. 1998). Sgr A East has a major the purposes of this paper, then, we take it that the EGRET axis length of about 10.5 pc, and its center is located 2.5 pc source 2EG J1746-285 is identical with Sgr A East (Melia et from Sgr A* in projection, and probably behind the latter al. 1998). We note in passing that the maximum energy (Goss et al. 1989). Lo et al. (1998) have recently determined attained by the shocked protons at Sgr A East, given the the intrinsic size of Sgr A* to be less than 5.4 ] 1011 mat energy-loss rate via collision in the shock, is D5 ] 1015 j7 mm. eV \ 5000 TeV (Melia et al. 1998). Also located at the GC is the EGRET-identiÐed c-ray Regardless of the ultimate identity of the EGRET source source 2EG J1746-2852 (Mayer-Hasselwander et al. 1998). 2EG J1746-285, given that the process producing the high- It has been shown that the high-energy (0.1È10 GeV) c-ray energy emission is pionic, there should be an associated emission spectrum of this source is very likely due to the neutrino Ñux from the GC (Blasi & Melia 1999). These decay of n0Ïs (Melia et al. 1998; Marko†, Melia, & Sarcevic neutrinos are due to both direct pion decay(nB ] kl ) and B ] k 1997). These pions are produced by p-p collisions, which the decay of muons to electrons and positrons (k ele lk), might plausibly take place at either of two shock regions: (1) where we take l to mean l andl here (as we often do in the the shock at Sgr A* due to gas accretion from ambient remainder of this paper). Prima facie, then, we expect the winds, or (2) the shock produced by the expansion of the Ñavor composition of the neutrino ““ beam ÏÏ generated at the SNR-like nonthermal shell of Sgr A East into the ambient GC to be essentially 67% k-like and 33% e-like by na• ve gas of the interstellar medium. Thus, a priori, either Sgr A* channel counting (cf. atmospheric neutrinos in the GeV or Sgr A East or both might be the source of the c-rays that energy range). Note that there is alq background produced constitute 2EG J1746-285. It has recently been shown, at the source due to nonpionic processes such as charmed however, that the identiÐcation of Sgr A* with 2EG J1746- hadron decay. This background is, however, small (see 28 is disfavored, because charged leptons produced in nB below). Of course, in the absence of neutrino Ñavor oscil- decays would emit too much synchrotron Ñux in Sgr A*Ïs lations, one would expect to observe GC neutrinos at Earth intense magnetic Ðeld at GHz frequencies to be consistent with the same Ñavor composition as that generated at the with the well-studied radio spectrum of this object (Melia et source. al. 1998; Blasi & Melia 1999). We do not distinguish between l andl, because present On the other hand, given the physical conditions in Sgr A and planned terrestrial detectors do/will not distinguish East, the putative charged leptons generated there have a between the two. There is one interesting proviso to this ^ ] 3 \ distribution that mimics a power law with index D3. The statement, however: ale Ñux atEle 6.4 10 TeV 6.4 ] 1015 eV can be detected by resonant W ~ boson pro- 1 ~ ] ~ School of Physics, Research Centre for High Energy Physics, The duction viale e W with the electrons in the detector University of Melbourne, 3010 Australia; r.crocker= medium. The resonance energy, however, is just above that physics.unimelb.edu.au, r.volkas=physics.unimelb.edu.au. 2 Physics Department and Steward Observatory, The University of attained by neutrinos generated in the processes described Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721; melia=physics.arizona.edu. above at the GC (Glashow 1960; Berezinsky & Gazizov 3 Presidential Young Investigator. 1977; Gandhi et al. 1996, 1998). 339 340 CROCKER, MELIA, & VOLKAS Vol. 130 Given our detailed knowledge of the basic physical pro- These are (1) the e†ectively point-source nature of the GC, cesses producing the GC c-rays, we are able to determine an and (2) a GC neutrino spectrum that is signiÐcantly Ñatter ~3.7 expression for the total neutrino emission at the source, than that of atmospheric neutrinos (which scales as El ). 0 Ql(El), in terms of the c-ray emission there,Qc(Ec), the If we preliminarily adopt an angular resolution of hres D 2¡ numerical power of the proton spectrum at the source, a for the proposed large-scale detectors (1 km2 e†ective detec- (such as would result from shock acceleration at either Sgr tor area), the condition for the detection of the GC neutrino 2 2 A East or Sgr A*), andr 4 (mk/mn) (Blasi & Melia 1999). Ñux is'l(El)/)res [ Iatm(El), where)res Bnhres is the solid The quantity a has been empirically determined to lie angle corresponding to the angular resolution of the experi- between 2.1 and 2.4 (Marko† et al. 1997; Blasi & Melia ment, andIatm(El) is the Ñux of atmospheric neutrinos per 1999), using a procedure to Ðt the EGRET spectrum of 2EG unit solid angle. This condition is fulÐlled above a few TeV, J1746-2852 with a detailed calculation of the particle and the expected event rate from this preliminary analysis is cascade using an extensive compilation of pion-multiplicity D4km~2 yr~1 for a \ 2.4 to D70 km~2 yr~1 for a \ 2.1 cross sections. In the energy range between the * resonance (Blasi & Melia 1999). Note that a fuller analysis of event (s1@2 D 1 GeV) and the intersecting storage rings (ISR) range rates (presented later) must also consider the problems (D23È63 GeV), simple scaling (Feynman 1969) does not posed by the atmospheric muon background and Earth adequately take into account the strong dependence of the neutrino opacity. cross section on the rapidity at lower energy, and the pion We see therefore that preliminary calculations reveal that distribution is not adequately described by a power-law there is a well-determined and potentially observable neu- mimicking the injected relativistic proton distribution trino Ñux at the Earth from the Galactic center. We now between D1 and D100 GeV. Instead, the distribution brieÑy list the motivations behind this work before going on steepens in this region and is curved, which is consistent to consider whether any sort of neutrino oscillation signa- with the suggested spectral shape measured by EGRET. ture might be detectable in the GC signal. Above about 10 GeV, however, the pion distribution settles into the ““ asymptotic ÏÏ form suggested by scaling, in which 1.2. Summary of Motivations the power-law index is a direct reÑection of the underlying The main motivations behind the present work are: relativistic protons. Thus, an EGRET spectrum with an e†ective spectral index of D[3 below 10 GeV is produced 1. Sgr A East is arguably the most thoroughly under- by a pion distribution whose power-law index lies in the stood extrasolar astrophysical source of very high energy range 2.1È2.4 above this energy. In other words, a relatively neutrinos identiÐed to date. It is thus of fundamental impor- steep and curved c-ray spectrum below 10 GeV is consistent tance for the embryonic science of neutrino astronomy.
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