Upper Limit on the Diffuse Flux of Ultrahigh Energy Tau Neutrinos from the Pierre Auger Observatory

Authors

• J. Abraham, Universidad Tecnolo´gica Nacional, FR-Mendoza, Argentina
• Gregory Snow, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
• Pierre Auger Collaboration

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

May 2008

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 211101 (2008). http://prl.aps.org. Copyright © 2008 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

The surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory is sensitive to Earth-skimming tau neutrinos that interact in Earth’s crust. Tau leptons from ν_τ charged-current interactions can emerge and decay in the atmosphere to produce a nearly horizontal shower with a significant electromagnetic component. The data collected between 1 January 2004 and 31 August 2007 are used to place an upper limit on the diffuse flux of ν_τ at EeV energies. Assuming an E_ν^-2 differential energy spectrum the limit set at 90% C.L. is E_ν^-2dN_ντ/dE_ν<1.3 x 10^-7 GeV cm^-2s^-1sr^-1 in the energy range 2 x 10¹⁷ eV< E_ν < 2 x 10M¹⁹ eV.