?Upper Limit on the Diffuse Flux of Ultrahigh Energy Tau Neutrinos from the Pierre Auger Observatory?

J. ABRAHAM (GARCIA, B. Y 400 AUTORES DE LA COL. INTERNACIONAL PIERRE AUGER); GARCIA, B. ( 400 AUTORES DE LA COL. INTERNACIONAL PIERRE AUGER)

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

American Physical Society

Lugar: Chicago; Año: 2008 p. 1101 - 1107

0031-9007

   The surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory is sensitive to Earth-skimming tau neutrinos that interact in Earth?s crust. Tau leptons from charged-current interactions can emerge and decay in theatmosphere to produce a nearly horizontal shower with a significant electromagnetic component. The datacollected between 1 January 2004 and 31 August 2007 are used to place an upper limit on the diffuse fluxof at EeV energies. Assuming an Eÿ2 differential energy spectrum the limit set at 90% C.L. is                                             E2 dN =dE < 1:3 10ÿ7 GeV cmÿ2 sÿ1 srÿ1 in the energy range 2 1017 eV < E < 2 1019 eV.