Daniel Biehl DESY-Zeuthen

Neutrino Production by Heavy Nuclei in GRBs(pdf)

The origin of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is still unknown. Although gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) were disfavored by IceCube as the main sources of the UHECRs, the impact of the nuclear composition in the accelerating region on the neutrino and cosmic ray spectra has not yet been studied in detail. We simulate a scenario in which heavy nuclei are produced and accelerated in shocks formed by colliding plasma shells ejected by a central engine within a relativistic jet. We take into account the whole nuclear cascade in photo-disintegration processes and study the relative contributions to the neutrino flux. We show how the composition at the source influences the spectra and discuss first results of our NeuCosmA code.