IAFE   05512
INSTITUTO DE ASTRONOMIA Y FISICA DEL ESPACIO
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Limit on the diffuse flux of ultra-high energy tau neutrinos with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
Autor/es:
THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION: SON 461 AUTORES, A.C. ROVERO
Revista:
PHYSICAL REVIEW D - PARTICLE AND FILDS
Editorial:
APS
Referencias:
Año: 2009 vol. 79 p. 102001 - 102001
ISSN:
0556-2821
Resumen:
Data collected at the Pierre Auger Observatory are used to establish an upper limit on the diffuse flux of tau neutrinos in the cosmic radiation. Earth-skimming ντ may interact in the Earth’s crust and produce a τ lepton by means of charged-current interactions. The τ lepton may emerge from the Earth and decay in the atmosphere to produce a nearly horizontal shower with a typical signature, a persistent electromagnetic component even at very large atmospheric depths. The search procedure to select events induced by τ decays against the background of normal showers induced by cosmic rays is described. The method used to compute the exposure for a detector continuously growing with time is detailed. Systematic uncertainties in the exposure from the detector, the analysis and the involved physics are discussed. No τ neutrino candidates have been found. For neutrinos in the energy range 2 × 1017eV < Eν < 2 × 1019 eV, assuming a diffuse spectrum of the formEν-2, data collected between 1 January 2004 and 30 April 2008 yield a 90% confidence-level upper limit of E2ν dNντ /dE ν < 9 10-8 GeV / cm2 s sr.