A two-zone model for the production of prompt neutrinos in gamma-ray bursts

REYNOSO, MATÍAS. M

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Gravitation, Astrophysics, and Cosmology II Argentinian-Brazilian Meeting; 2014

Instituto Argentino de Radioastromía

We study the production of high energy neutrinos in GRBs (gamma-ray bursts) associated with their prompt emission, taking into account the effects of particle acceleration and escape using a two-zone model. Primary electrons and protons are injected in an acceleration zone and the escaping particles are re-injected in a cooling zone which propagates downstream. The synchrotron photons from the accelerated electrons are taken as targets for p-gamma interactions, which along with p-p collisions with cold protons in the flow, lead to pion production. The distribution of these secondary pions and the decaying muons are also computed in both zones, from which the neutrino output is obtained. We find that for escape rates lower than the acceleration rate the synchrotron emission from electrons in the acceleration zone can account for the GRB emission, and the production of neutrinos via p-gamma interactions in this zone becomes dominant for E > 10^5 GeV. For illustration, we compute the corresponding diffuse neutrino flux under different assumptions and show that it can reach the level of the signal recently detected by IceCube.