Detecting neutrinos from AGN: New fluxes and cross sections

Abstract

New information on the structure of the nucleon from the HERA ep collider leads to higher neutrino cross sections for the processes nu_mu + N --> mu + X needed to calculate the expected rates of astrophysical neutrino induced muons in large detectors either under construction, or in the design stage. These higher cross sections lead to higher muon rates for arrival angles where neutrino attenuation in the earth is less important. On the other hand, new estimates of AGN neutrino fluxes suggest that the expected muon rates in these detectors may be much lower than previously calculated. I use the new cross sections to calculate the expected muon rates and angular distributions in large detectors for a variety of AGN models and compare these rates with the atmospheric neutrino backrounds (from both conventional decay channels and the "prompt" charmed meson decay channels). If the lowest flux estimates are correct, there may be diffculties in determining the origin of a small excess of muons, due to the large uncertainty in the rate of the charmed meson neutrino production channel. However, the more optimistic AGN neutrino fluxes should be detectable in proposed detectors, such as DUMAND-II, AMANDA, NESTOR and Lake Baikal.