Extremely High Energy Neutrinos from Cosmic Strings

Abstract

Superstring theory and other supersymmetric theories predict the existence of relatively light, weakly interacting scalar particles, called moduli, with a universal form of coupling to matter. Such particles can be emitted from cusps of cosmic strings, where extremely large Lorentz factors are achieved momentarily. Highly boosted modulus bursts emanating from cusps subsequently decay into gluons, they generate parton cascades which in turn produce large numbers of pions and then neutrinos. Due to very large Lorentz factors, extremely high energy neutrinos, up to the Planck scale and above, are produced. For some model parameters, the predicted flux of neutrinos with energies $\gtrsim 10^{21}$ eV is observable by JEM-EUSO and by the future large radio detectors LOFAR and SKA.