Can astrophysical neutrinos trace the origin of the detected ultra-high energy cosmic rays?

TL;DR

This paper explores whether astrophysical neutrinos can be used to trace the origins of ultra-high energy cosmic rays by analyzing their directional correlations, considering cosmic ray propagation limits, magnetic deflections, and source evolution.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical framework for assessing neutrino-UHECR correlations, highlighting the constraints imposed by the non-observation of neutrino multiplets.

Findings

Neutrino multiplet non-observation constrains correlation prospects.

UHECR horizon and magnetic deflections limit source identification.

Theoretical analysis of neutrino and cosmic ray source associations.

Abstract

Since astrophysical neutrinos are produced in the interactions of cosmic rays, identifying the origin of cosmic rays using directional correlations with neutrinos is one of the most interesting possibilities of the field. For that purpose, especially the Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) are promising, as they are deflected less by extragalactic and Galactic magnetic fields than cosmic rays at lower energies. However, photo-hadronic interactions of the UHECRs limit their horizon, while neutrinos do not interact over cosmological distances. We study the possibility to search for anisotropies by investigating neutrino-UHECR correlations from the theoretical perspective, taking into account the UHECR horizon, magnetic-field deflections, and the cosmological source evolution. Under the assumption that the neutrinos and UHECRs all come from the same source class, we demonstrate that the non-observation of neutrino multiplets strongly constrains the possibility to find neutrino-UHECR correlations.