Prospect of Gamma-Ray Burst Neutrino Detection with Enhanced Neutrino Detectors

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential for future high-sensitivity neutrino detectors to observe neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts, which could confirm models of GRB emission or constrain their properties.

Contribution

It estimates detection probabilities with detectors ten times more sensitive than IceCube and discusses implications for GRB emission models if neutrinos remain undetected.

Findings

A detector with 10x IceCube sensitivity could detect neutrinos from a GRB 221009A-like event.

With 5-10 years of data, stacked GRB neutrinos could be observed or models ruled out.

Enhanced detectors could significantly improve constraints on GRB prompt emission mechanisms.

Abstract

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have long been proposed as a potential source of high-energy neutrinos. Although no confirmed association between GRBs and neutrinos has been established, meaningful constraints have been placed on GRB prompt emission models. The nondetection of neutrinos, reported by the IceCube Collaboration, from both single and stacked GRB events suggests that the radiation zone is likely located at a considerable distance from the central engine, where the photon number density is relatively low. Here, we estimate future GRB neutrino detection probabilities using detectors with a higher simulated sensitivity than IceCube and explore the constraints on models if GRB neutrinos remain undetected despite improved sensitivity. Our findings reveal that if the effective area of a future neutrino detector can be enhanced by a factor of 10 compared to IceCube IC86-II, there is a high likelihood of detecting neutrinos from a GRB 221009A-like event, even in the context of the ICMART model, which exhibits the lowest efficiency in neutrino production. With such an advanced detector (enhanced by a factor of 10) and 5-10 yr of data accumulation, neutrinos from stacked GRBs should be identifiable, or several popular models for GRB prompt emission (e.g., the dissipative photosphere model and internal shock model) could be effectively ruled out.