Testing the newborn pulsar origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays with EeV neutrinos

Abstract

Fast-spinning newborn pulsars are intriguing candidate sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). The acceleration of particles with a given composition in a fraction of the extragalactic pulsar population can give a consistent explanation for the measurements of the Auger Observatory. We calculate the associated diffuse neutrino flux produced while particles cross the supernova ejecta surrounding the stars. We show that in the minimal pulsar scenarios that are compatible with the UHECR data, the effective optical depth to hadronuclear interactions is larger than unity at ultrahigh energies. Thus, even in the most pessimistic case, one expects energy fluxes of $\ensuremath{\sim}0.1--1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{EeV}$ neutrinos that should be detectable with IceCube or the Askaryan Radio Array within a decade.