arXiv subjects

AmirFarzan Esmaeili

Publications and source records attributed to AmirFarzan Esmaeili.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Nuclei in high-energy neutrino sources: A multimessenger study of in-source propagation

The joint observation of astrophysical sources in gamma rays and neutrinos can provide invaluable insight into the physical conditions of the source, including its size, particle densities, and acceleration and production mechanisms. In this work, we investigate the role of nuclear composition in high-energy astrophysical environments. Using NGC 1068 as a representative example, we perform detailed Monte Carlo simulations of nuclear and electromagnetic cascades within the source and study the imprints of the injected nuclear composition on the resulting neutrino and gamma-ray emissions. We further discuss the importance of MeV-GeV gamma-ray observations for constraining the source composition in the context of future gamma-ray experiments. A dedicated re-analysis of archival COMPTEL observations is also presented.

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arXiv2026

Time-of-Flight Constraints on Neutrino Millicharge from Supernova Neutrinos in Galactic Magnetic Fields

A millicharged neutrino propagating through magnetic fields experiences a small Lorentz-force deflection, which induces a geometric time delay. In the ultra-relativistic regime relevant for supernova neutrinos, this delay scales as $q_ν^2 E_ν^{-2}$, where $q_ν$ and $E_ν$ denote the neutrino millicharge and energy, respectively, and thus shares the same leading energy dependence as the standard time-of-flight delay induced by neutrino mass. Motivated by this similarity, we propose a framework to reinterpret supernova time-of-flight limits on neutrino mass as constraints on neutrino millicharge. We express both effects in terms of a common $E_ν^{-2}$ dispersion coefficient and compute the millicharge-induced contribution using a line-of-sight-dependent magnetic delay kernel, extending the original SN1987A uniform-field estimate. Applying this translation to existing SN1987A limits and to projected sensitivities for future Galactic core-collapse supernova observations, we obtain bounds ranging from the $\sim 10^{-17}\, e$ level for SN1987A to the low-$10^{-19}\, e$ regime for next-generation Galactic bursts, with optimistic combinations of detector sensitivity and Galactic sightline approaching $\sim 10^{-20}\, e$. We compare these results with other bounds in the literature and discuss how nonzero neutrino mass affects the interpretation.

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arXiv2024

Pair production with capture by energetic cosmic ray nuclei in a photon background

We investigate the ionization state of very energetic cosmic ray nuclei in photon fields, such as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in extragalactic propagation and the environment surrounding the acceleration site in astrophysical sources. We focus on the process of pair production with electron capture (PPC), where the interaction of a single photon with a nucleus produces an $e^\pm$ pair (similar to Bethe-Heitler process) with the subsequent capture of electron by the nucleus. This process effectively reduces the nucleus charge by one unit and counteracts the photo-ionization process. We show that during cosmological propagation, where the ultra-high energy cosmic rays interact predominantly with the CMB, ionization dominates over PPC for all the cases of practical interest. However, within the source environment and at sufficiently high energies, ionization and PPC processes can reach an equilibrium, leading to a significant fraction of dressed heavy nuclei. This provides a further limitation to the acceleration of high-$Z$ nuclei to very high energies in environments with hot and dense photon fields.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

A closer scrutiny of cosmic ray proton energy losses

The percent-level precision attained by modern cosmic ray (CR) observations motivates reaching a comparable or better control of theoretical uncertainties. Here we focus on energy-loss processes affecting low-energy CR protons ($\sim 0.1-5$ GeV), where the experimental errors are small and collisional effects play a comparatively larger role with respect to collisionless transport ones. We study three aspects of the problem: i) We quantitatively assess the role of the nuclear elastic cross-section, for the first time, providing analytical formulae for the stopping power and inelasticity. ii) We discuss the error arising from treating both elastic and pion production inelastic interactions as continuous energy loss processes, as opposed to catastrophic ones. The former is the approximation used in virtually all modern numerical calculations. iii) We consider sub-leading effects such as relativistic corrections, radiative and medium processes in ionization energy-losses. Our analysis reveals that neglecting i) leads to errors close to 1%, notably around and below 1 GeV; neglecting ii) leads to errors reaching about 3% within the considered energy range; iii) contributes to a minor effect, gauged at the level of 0.1%. Consequently, while iii) can currently be neglected, ii) warrants consideration, and we also recommend incorporating i) into computations. We conclude with some perspectives on further steps to be taken towards a high-precision goal of theoretical CR predictions regarding the treatment of energy-losses.

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arXiv2024

Neutrinos from muon-rich ultra high energy electromagnetic cascades: The MUNHECA code

An ultra high energy electromagnetic cascade, a purely leptonic process and initiated by either photons or $e^\pm$, can be a source of high energy neutrinos. We present a public python3 code, MUNHECA, to compute the neutrino spectrum by taking into account various QED processes, with the cascade developing either along the propagation in the cosmic microwave background in the high-redshift universe or in a predefined photon background surrounding the astrophysical source. The user can adjust various settings of MUNHECA, including the spectrum of injected high energy photons, the background photon field and the QED processes governing the cascade evolution. We improve the modeling of several processes, provide examples of the execution of MUNHECA and compare it with some earlier and more simplified estimates of the neutrino spectrum from electromagnetic cascades.

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arXiv2023

Ultra-high energy neutrinos from high-redshift electromagnetic cascades

We study the impact of the muon pair production and double pair production processes induced by ultra-high energy photons on the cosmic microwave background. Although the muon pair production cross section is smaller than the electron pair production one, the associated energy loss length is comparable or shorter than the latter (followed by inverse Compton in the deep Klein-Nishina regime) at high-redshift, where the effect of the astrophysical radio background is expected to be negligible. By performing a simulation taking into account the details of $e/γ$ interactions at high energies, we show that a significant fraction of the electromagnetic energy injected at $E\gtrsim 10^{19}\,$eV at redshift $z\gtrsim 5$ is channeled into neutrinos. The double pair production plays a crucial role in enhancing the multiplicity of muon production in these electromagnetic cascades. The ultra-high energy neutrino spectrum, yet to be detected, can in principle harbour information on ultra-high energy sources in the young universe, either conventional or exotic ones, with weaker constraints from the diffuse gamma ray flux compared to their low redshift counterparts.

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arXiv2021

Evaporating Primordial Black Holes in Gamma Ray and Neutrino Telescopes

A primordial black hole in the last stages of evaporation and located in the local neighborhood can produce a detectable signal in gamma ray and neutrino telescopes. We re-evaluate the expected gamma ray and neutrino fluxes from these transient point events and discuss the consequences for existing constraints. For gamma rays we improve the current bounds by a factor of few, while for neutrinos we obtain significantly different results than the existing literature. The capability and advantages of neutrino telescopes in the search for primordial black holes is discussed thoroughly. The correlations of gamma ray and neutrino energy and time profiles will be promoted as a powerful tool in identifying the primordial black holes, in case of detection.

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