GeV-PeV neutrino production and oscillation in hidden jets from gamma-ray bursts

Abstract

Long gamma-ray bursts have been widely associated with collapsing massive stars in the framework of collapsar model. High-energy neutrinos and photons can be produced in the internal shocks of middle relativistic jets from core-collapse supernova. Although photons can hardly escape, high-energy neutrinos could be the only signature when the jets are hidden. We show that using suitable parameters, high-energy neutrinos in GeV-PeV range can be produced in the hidden jet inside the collapsar, thus demonstrating that these objects are candidates to produce neutrinos with energies between 1 and 10 PeV which were observed with IceCube. On the other hand, due to matter effects, high-energy neutrinos may oscillate resonantly from one flavour to another before leaving the star. Using two- (solar, atmospheric and accelerator parameters) and three-neutrino mixing, we study the possibility of resonant oscillation for these neutrinos created in internal shocks. Also we compute the probabilities of neutrino oscillations in the matter at different distances along the jet (before leaving the star) and after in vacuum, on their path to Earth. Finally, neutrino flavour ratios on Earth are estimated. © 2013 The Author. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.