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

THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION (ALPHABETICAL); A. VEIGA

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

The American Physical Society

Año: 2008 vol. 100 p. 1 - 7

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 vt charged-current interactions can emerge and decay in the atmosphere to produce a nearly horizontal shower with a significant electromagnetic component. The data collected between 1 January 2004 and 31 August 2007 are used to place an upper limit on the diffuse flux of vt at EeV energies. Assuming an Ev-2 differential energy spectrum the limit set at 90% C.L. is E2 dN=dE < 1:3107 GeV cm2 s1 sr1 in the energy range 2 x 1017 eV