Tracing Cosmic accelerators with Decaying Neutrons

TL;DR

This paper explores how ultrahigh energy neutrons and pions produced in cosmic ray sources decay into neutrinos, with a focus on gamma ray bursts, highlighting conditions where antineutrino fluxes from neutron decay dominate.

Contribution

It demonstrates that in gamma ray bursts, the antineutrino flux from neutron decay can surpass pion decay neutrino flux depending on source parameters.

Findings

Antineutrino flux from neutron decay can exceed pion decay neutrino flux.

High magnetic fields cause energy loss in charged particles before decay.

Gamma ray burst models predict dominant neutron decay neutrino signals.

Abstract

Ultrahigh energy neutrons and pions are likely to be produced in particle interactions inside cosmic ray sources and subsequently decay to neutrinos and other secondary particles ($\pi^\pm \rightarrow \mu^\pm\nu_\mu(\bar \nu_\mu),\mu^\pm \rightarrow e^\pm \bar\nu_\mu(\nu_\mu) \nu_e(\bar\nu_e)$). In high magnetic fields of the cosmic acceleration sites, the ultrahigh energy charged particles may lose energy significantly due to synchrotron radiation before decay. We show that for gamma ray bursts in the internal shock model the flux of very high energy antineutrinos ($\bar \nu_e$) produced from decaying ultrahigh energy neutrons can be more than the total neutrino flux produced in pion decay depending on the values of their Lorentz factors, luminosities and variability times.