Cosmic-ray muon and atmospheric neutrino fluxes at very high energies

Abstract

Estimates of cosmic-ray muon and atmospheric neutrino fluxes at TeV energies are obtained taking into account a “prompt” production of muons and neutrinos through charmed-particle decays and a “direct” lepton-pair production through the Drell-Yan mechanism and resonances. It is found that the contribution of charmed particles to the muon flux is equal to that from the conventional sources (pion and kaon decays) at 60 TeV, and the same equality can take place at 10 and 1 TeV for muon and electron neutrinos, respectively (for particles coming to sea level in the vertical direction). This “direct” production contribution to muon and neutrino fluxes is estimated very arbitrarily, but it cannot be excluded that this contribution is equal to that from the conventional source at energies of 0.5 and 0.05 PeV for muons and muon neutrinos, respectively. Currently, the estimates of the “prompt” and the “direct” contributions to cosmic-ray muons and atmospheric neutrinos are only qualitative. This is true especially for the “direct” contribution. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to attract attention to these potentially important sources of atmospheric muons and neutrinos.