Neutrino Oscillations and Blazars

الأصل · EN

Three independent predictions follow from postulating the existence of protons co-accelerated with electrons in extragalactic jets (i) multi-TeV gamma ray emission from nearby blazars, (ii) extragalactic cosmic ray protons up to 10²0 eV, and (iii) extragalactic neutrinos up to 5 10¹8 eV. Recent gamma ray observations of Mrk 421 and Mrk 501 employing the air-Cerenkov technique are consistent with the predicted gamma ray spectrum, if one corrects for pair attenuation on the infrared background. Prediction (ii) is consistent with cosmic ray data, if one requires that jets are responsible for at least a sizable fraction of the extragalactic gamma ray background. With kubic kilometer neutrino telescopes, it will be possible to test (iii), although the muon event rates are rather low. Neutrino oscillations can increase the event rate by inducing tau-cascades removing the Earth shadowing effect.