High energy neutrino astronomy: Horizontal air shower arrays versus underground detectors - Zas, E.; Halzen, F.; Vazquez, R.A. (Elsevier)
We evaluate the potential of horizontal air shower arrays as high energy neutrino telescopes. We compare their discovery potential with that of large underground detectors, using for benchmarking theorized neutrino signals from active galactic nuclei and prompt atmospheric neutrino fluxes from the decay of charmed particles. The status of charm production by cosmic rays in the atmosphere is discussed in detail paying particular attention to neutrinos and muons from semi-leptonic decay and to the possibility that these are misinterpreted as astrophysical neutrino signals. We study down- and upgoing muon fluxes in underground detectors as well as horizontal air shower experiments. Existing horizontal air shower data provide us with significant information on the very high energy charm cross section which cannot be reliably calculated in perturbative QCD.
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0927-6505(93)90016-7
Keywords: U