MUON ACCELERATION IN COSMIC-RAY SOURCES

Many models of ultra-high energy cosmic-ray production involve acceleration in linear accelerators located in gamma-ray bursts, magnetars, or other sources. These transient sources have short lifetimes, which necessitate very high accelerating gradients, up to 10 super(13) keV cm super(-1). At gradi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Astrophysical journal Vol. 779; no. 2; pp. 1 - 5
Main Authors Klein, Spencer R, Mikkelsen, Rune E, Tjus, Julia Becker
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 20.12.2013
Subjects
ACCELERATION
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
DECAY
DENSITY
ENERGY SPECTRA
Flux
Gamma ray bursts
INTERACTIONS
KEV RANGE
LIFETIME
LIMITING VALUES
Magnetars
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MUONS
NEUTRINOS
Opacity
PLASMA
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
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Summary:Many models of ultra-high energy cosmic-ray production involve acceleration in linear accelerators located in gamma-ray bursts, magnetars, or other sources. These transient sources have short lifetimes, which necessitate very high accelerating gradients, up to 10 super(13) keV cm super(-1). At gradients above 1.6 keV cm super(-1), muons produced by hadronic interactions undergo significant acceleration before they decay. This muon acceleration hardens the neutrino energy spectrum and greatly increases the high-energy neutrino flux. Using the IceCube high-energy diffuse neutrino flux limits, we set two-dimensional limits on the source opacity and matter density, as a function of accelerating gradient. These limits put strong constraints on different models of particle acceleration, particularly those based on plasma wake-field acceleration, and limit models for sources like gamma-ray bursts and magnetars.
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ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/106