Leptonic originated High energy neutrinos from astrophysical objects

Abstract

High-energy neutrinos are traditionally regarded as unambiguous signatures of hadronic cosmic rays in astrophysical environments. Here we show that TeV neutrinos can instead be produced by energetic electrons through purely electromagnetic processes in a variety of potential cosmic-ray accelerators. The resulting fluxes are comparable to those expected from hadronic interactions, suggesting that electrons may contribute a significant fraction of the neutrinos detected by the IceCube Observatory. These findings challenge the conventional interpretation of neutrino origins and underscore the need for joint gamma-ray and neutrino observations over a broad energy range to discriminate between hadronic and leptonic production mechanisms.

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: The ratio $R$ as a function of $s$.
• Figure 2: The fraction of electrons that eventually produce a muon pair, rather than cooling below the threshold energy without undergoing MPP, plotted as a function of electron's lab energy.
• Figure 3: Comparison of the emissivity (the rate at which neutrinos are produced per unit volume, per unit time, and per unit energy) of neutrinos produced via leptonic and hadronic processes for three different radiation field temperatures: $0.01$, $0.1$ and $1$ keV, of the radiation field of the source. The energy density of electrons/protons in the source is assumed to be $1$ erg/$cm^3$