The Appearance of Tau Neutrinos from a Gamma Ray Burst

Abstract

The muon neutrinos from the Gamma Ray Bursts(GRBs) during their propagation oscillate to tau neutrinos. The tau neutrinos can be identified by the appearance of tau leptons which decay to muons below the detector. We examine the prospect of detecting these tau neutrinos from individual GRBs in a large area muon detector. We investigate for what range of values of the physical parameters of the GRBs such as Lorentz factor, redshift(distance from the observer) and total energy emitted in neutrino emissions the appearance of tau neutrinos from individual GRBs will be observable in a ground based muon detector of km^2 area. We find it will be possible to detect tau neutrino signals from a single GRB in a ground based muon detector of km^2 area above a muon threshold energy 30 PeV and at a zenith angle 180 degree if the energy emitted in neutrinos is 10^53 erg and its redshift is below 0.01 or if the energy emitted in neutrinos by the GRB is 10^54 erg and its redshift is below 0.03.