Reevaluation of the prospect of observing neutrinos from Galactic sources in the light of recent results in gamma ray and neutrino astronomy

Abstract

In light of the recent IceCube evidence for a flux of extraterrestrial neutrinos, we revisit the prospect of observing the sources of the Galactic cosmic rays. In particular, we update the predictions for the neutrino flux expected from sources in the nearby star-forming region in Cygnus taking into account recent TeV gamma ray measurements of their spectra. We consider the three Milagro sources: MGRO J2019+37, MGRO J1908+06 and MGRO J2031+41 and calculate the attainable confidence level limits and statistical significance as a function of the exposure time. We also evaluate the prospects for a kilometer-scale detector in the Mediterranean to observe and elucidate the origin of the cosmic neutrino flux measured by IceCube.