# Neutrino afterglow from Gamma-Ray Bursts: ∼10¹⁸ eV

## 1 Introduction

The widely accepted interpretation of the phenomenology of $`\gamma `$-ray bursts (GRB’s) is that the observable effects are due to the dissipation of the kinetic energy of a relativistically expanding fireball whose primal cause is not yet known \[see Mészáros (1995) and Piran (1996) for reviews\]. The physical conditions in the dissipation region imply that protons can be Fermi accelerated to energies $`>10^{20}`$ eV (Waxman 1995a; Vietri 1995; see Waxman 1999 for recent review).

Adopting the conventional fireball picture, we showed previously that the prediction of an accompanying burst of $`10^{14}\mathrm{eV}`$ neutrinos is a natural consequence (Waxman & Bahcall 1997). The neutrinos are produced by $`\pi ^+`$ created in interactions between fireball $`\gamma `$-rays and accelerated protons. The key relation is between the observed photon energy, $`ϵ_\gamma `$, and the accelerated proton’s energy, $`ϵ_p`$, at the photo-meson threshold of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-resonance. In the observer’s frame,

$$ϵ_\gamma ϵ_p=0.2\mathrm{GeV}^2\mathrm{\Gamma }^2,$$
(1)   
where phenomenologically the Lorentz factors of the expanding fireball are $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>10^2`$. Inserting a typical observed $`\gamma `$-ray energy of $`1`$ MeV, we see that characteristic proton energies $`2\times 10^6`$ GeV are required to produce neutrinos from pion decay. Typically, the neutrinos receive $`5`$% of the proton energy, leading to neutrinos of $`10^{14}`$ eV as stated<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1The claim that the spectrum of neutrinos produced in interaction with burst (rather than afterglow) photons extends to $`10^{19}`$ eV (Vietri (1998)) is due to calculational errors.. In the standard picture, these neutrinos result from internal shocks within the fireball.

In the last two years, afterglows of GRB’s have been discovered in X-ray, optical, and radio (Costa et al. 1997; van Paradijs et al. 1997; Frail et al. 1997). These observations confirm (Waxman 1997a; Wijers, Rees, & Mészáros 1997) standard model predictions (Paczyński & Rhoads 1993; Katz 1994; Mészáros & Rees 1997; Vietri 1997a) of afterglows that result from the collision of the expanding fireball with the surrounding medium. Inserting in Eq. (1) a typical afterglow photon energy $`10^2`$ eV, we see that characteristic neutrino energies of order $`10^9`$ GeV may be expected<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2Afterglow photons are produced over a wide range of energies, from radio to X-rays, leading to a broad neutrino spectrum. As we show in §4, however, the flux is dominated by neutrinos in the energy range $`10^{17}`$$`10^{19}`$ eV \[cf. Eq. (14)\], which are produced in proton interactions with $`10`$ eV–1 keV photons.. $`\gamma `$-rays of similar energies are produced by $`\pi ^0`$ decay, but because the fireball is optically thick at these energies the $`\gamma `$’s probably leak out only at much lower energies, $`10`$ GeV.

The ultra-high energy neutrinos, $`10^{18}`$ eV, are produced in the initial stage of the interaction of the fireball with its surrounding gas, which occurs over a time, $`T`$, comparable to the duration of the GRB itself. Optical–UV photons are radiated by electrons accelerated in shocks propagating backward into the ejecta. Protons are accelerated to high energy in these “reverse” shocks. The combination of low energy photons and high energy protons produces ultra-high energy neutrinos via photo-meson interactions, as indicated by Eq. (1).

Afterglows have been detected in several cases; reverse shock emission has only been identified for GRB 990123 (Akerlof 1999). Both the detections and the non-detections are consistent with shocks occurring with typical model parameters (Sari & Piran 1999; Mészáros & Rees 1999), suggesting that reverse shock emission may be common. The predicted neutrino and gamma-ray emission depends upon parameters of the surrounding medium that can only be estimated once more observations of the prompt optical afterglow emission are available.

We discuss in §2 likely plasma conditions in the collisions between the fireball and the surrounding medium, and in §3 the physics of how the ultra-high energy neutrinos are produced. We first discuss in §3.1 ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) production in GRB’s in the light of recent afterglow observations. We show that afterglow observations provide further support for the model of UHECR production in GRB’s, and address some criticism of the model recently made in the literature (Gallant & Achterberg (1999)). Neutrino production is then discussed in §3.2. The expected neutrino flux and spectrum is derived in §4 and the implications of our results to future experiments are discussed in §5.

## 2 Plasma conditions at the reverse shocks

We concentrate in this section on the epoch between the time the expanding fireball first strikes the surrounding medium and the time when the reverse shocks have erased the memory of the initial conditions. After this period, the expansion approaches the Blandford & McKee (1976) self-similar solutions. The purpose of this section is to derive the plasma parameters and the UV luminosity and spectrum expected for typical GRB parameters. We use the results derived here to estimate in the following sections the energy to which protons can be accelerated and to calculate the production of ultra-high energy neutrinos and multiple GeV photons.

During self-similar expansion, the Lorentz factor of plasma at the shock front is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BM}=(17E/16\pi nm_pc^2)^{1/2}r^{3/2}`$, where $`E`$ is the fireball energy and $`n`$ is the surrounding gas number density. The characteristic time at which radiation emitted by shocked plasma at radius $`r`$ is observed by a distant observer is $`tr/4\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BM}^2c`$ (Waxman 1997b).

The transition to self-similar expansion occurs on a time scale $`T`$ (measured in the observer frame) comparable to the longer of the two time scales set by the initial conditions: the (observer) GRB duration $`t_{\mathrm{GRB}}`$ and the (observer) time $`T_\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ at which the self-similar Lorentz factor equals the original ejecta Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BM}(t=T_\mathrm{\Gamma })=\mathrm{\Gamma }_i`$. Since $`t=r/4\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BM}^2c`$,

$$T=\mathrm{max}[t_{\mathrm{GRB}},6\left(\frac{E_{53}}{n_0}\right)^{1/3}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_i}{300}\right)^{8/3}\mathrm{s}].$$
(2)   
During the transition, plasma shocked by the reverse shocks expands with Lorentz factor close to that given by the self-similar solution, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BM}(t=T)`$, i.e.

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }245\left(\frac{E_{53}}{n_0}\right)^{1/8}T_1^{3/8},$$
(3)   
while the unshocked fireball ejecta propagate with the original expansion Lorentz factor, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i>\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. We write Eq. (3) in terms of dimensionless parameters that are characteristically of order unity in models that successfully describe observed GRB phenomena. Thus $`E=10^{53}E_{53}`$ erg, $`T=10T_1`$ s, $`n=1n_0\mathrm{cm}^3`$, and typically $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i300`$. Lorentz factors of the reverse shocks in the frames of the unshocked plasma are mildly relativistic, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R1\mathrm{\Gamma }_i/\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{BM}}`$. If the initial Lorentz factor is extremely large, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i300`$, the transition Lorentz factor computed from Eq. (2) and Eq. (3) remains unchanged, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }250`$, while the reverse shocks become highly relativistic, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\mathrm{\Gamma }_i/\mathrm{\Gamma }1`$.

The observed photon radiation is produced in the fireball model by synchrotron emission of shock-accelerated electrons. We now summarize the characteristics of the synchrotron spectrum that leads to ultra-high energy neutrinos and GeV photons.

Let $`\xi _e`$ and $`\xi _B`$ be the fractions of the thermal energy density $`U`$ (in the plasma rest frame) that are carried, respectively, by electrons and magnetic fields. The characteristic electron Lorentz factor (in the plasma rest frame) is $`\gamma _m\xi _e(\mathrm{\Gamma }_R1)m_p/m_e\xi _e(\mathrm{\Gamma }_i/\mathrm{\Gamma })m_p/m_e`$, where the thermal energy per proton in the shocked ejecta is $`(\mathrm{\Gamma }_R1)m_pc^2`$. The energy density $`U`$ is $`E4\pi r^2cT\mathrm{\Gamma }^2U`$, and the number of radiating electrons is $`N_eE/\mathrm{\Gamma }_im_pc^2`$. The characteristic(or peak) energy of synchrotron photons (in the observer frame) is

$$ϵ_{\gamma m}^{\mathrm{ob}.}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }\gamma _m^2\frac{eB}{m_ec}=0.6\xi _{e,1}^2\xi _{B,2}^{1/2}n_0^{1/2}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_i}{300}\right)^2\mathrm{eV},$$
(4)   
and the specific luminosity, $`L_ϵ=dL/dϵ_\gamma ^{\mathrm{ob}.}`$, at $`ϵ_{\gamma m}^{\mathrm{ob}.}`$ is

$$L_m(2\pi \mathrm{})^1\mathrm{\Gamma }\frac{e^3B}{m_ec^2}N_e6\times 10^{60}\xi _{B,2}^{1/2}E_{53}^{5/4}T_1^{3/4}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_i}{300}\right)^1n_0^{1/4}\mathrm{s}^1,$$
(5)   
where $`\xi _e=0.1\xi _{e,1}`$, and $`\xi _B=0.01\xi _{B,2}`$. Hereafter, we denote particle energy in the observer frame with the super-script “ob.”, and particle energy measured at the plasma frame with no super-script (e.g., $`ϵ_{\gamma m}^{\mathrm{ob}.}=\mathrm{\Gamma }ϵ_{\gamma m}`$).

Since the reverse shocks are typically mildly relativistic, electrons are expected to be accelerated in these shocks to a power law energy distribution, $`dN_e/d\gamma _e\gamma _e^p`$ for $`\gamma _e>\gamma _m`$, with $`p2`$ (Axford, Leer, & Skadron 1977; Bell 1978; Blandford & Ostriker 1978). The specific luminosity extends in this case to energy $`ϵ_\gamma >ϵ_{\gamma m}`$ as $`L_ϵ=L_m(ϵ_\gamma /ϵ_{\gamma m})^{1/2}`$, up to photon energy $`ϵ_{\gamma c}`$. Here $`ϵ_{\gamma c}`$ is the characteristic synchrotron frequency of electrons for which the synchrotron cooling time, $`6\pi m_ec/\sigma _T\gamma _eB^2`$, is comparable to the ejecta (rest frame) expansion time, $`r/\mathrm{\Gamma }c`$. At energy $`ϵ_\gamma >ϵ_{\gamma c}`$,

$$ϵ_{\gamma c}^{\mathrm{ob}.}0.3\xi _{B,2}^{3/2}n_0^1E_{53}^{1/2}T_1^{1/2}\mathrm{keV},$$
(6)   
the spectrum steepens to $`L_ϵϵ_\gamma ^1`$.

## 3 UHECR and neutrino production

### 3.1 UHECR production

Protons are expected to be accelerated to high energies in mildly relativistic shocks within an expanding ultra-relativistic GRB wind (Waxman 1995a, Vietri 1995). Energies as high as $`ϵ_p^{\mathrm{ob}.}=10^{20}ϵ_{p,20}^{\mathrm{ob}.}`$ eV may be achieved provided the fraction of thermal energy density carried by magnetic fields, $`\xi _B`$, is large enough, and provided shocks occur at large enough radii, so that proton energy loss by synchrotron emission does not affect acceleration (Waxman 1995a, 1999). The condition that needs to be satisfied by $`\xi _B`$,

$$\frac{\xi _B}{\xi _e}>10^2(ϵ_{p,20}^{\mathrm{ob}.}\mathrm{\Gamma }/250)^2L_{\gamma ,52}^1,$$
(7)   
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the wind expansion Lorentz factor and $`L_\gamma =10^{52}L_{\gamma ,52}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ its $`\gamma `$-ray luminosity, is consistent with constraints imposed by afterglow observations. Afterglow observations imply $`\xi _e0.1`$ and $`\xi _B0.01`$ \[e.g. Eq. (4)\]. The observed distribution of GRB redshifts, which suggests that most detected GRB’s occur at the redshift range of 1–3 (Krumholtz, Thorsett & Harrison (1998); Mao & Mo (1998); Hogg & Fruchter (1999)), imply that the characteristic GRB $`\gamma `$-ray luminosity is $`L_\gamma 10^{52}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$: For characteristic GRB $`\gamma `$-ray flux, $`F_\gamma 10^6\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}`$ in the BATSE 20keV–2MeV range, and adopting the cosmological parameters $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.2`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ and $`H_0=75\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}\mathrm{Mpc}`$, the luminosity for a $`z=1.5`$ burst is $`L_\gamma 10^{52}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This result is consistent with the more detailed analysis of Mao & Mo (1998), who obtain a median GRB luminosity in the 50keV–300keV range (which accounts for $`1/3`$ of the BATSE range luminosity) of $`10^{51}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ and $`H_0=100\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}\mathrm{Mpc}`$.

The condition that needs to be satisfied to avoid proton synchrotron energy loss (Waxman 1995a ),

$$r>r_{\mathrm{syn}}=10^{12}(\mathrm{\Gamma }/250)^2(ϵ_{p,20}^{\mathrm{ob}.})^3\mathrm{cm},$$
(8)   
is clearly satisfied in the present context, as reverse shocks arise at $`r4\mathrm{\Gamma }^2cT10^{17}\mathrm{cm}10^{12}`$ cm. Thus, synchrotron losses of protons accelerated to high energy at the radii where reverse shocks are expected to arise are negligible.

We note that it has recently been claimed (Gallant & Achterberg 1999) that acceleration of protons to $`10^{20}`$ eV in the highly-relativistic external shock driven by the fireball into its surround medium is impossible. Regardless of whether this claim is correct or not, it is not relevant to the model proposed in Waxman (1995a) and discussed here, in which protons are accelerated in the mildly-relativistic internal (reverse) shocks.

Finally, improved constraints from afterglow observations on the energy generation rate of GRB’s provide further support to the GRB model of UHECR production. For an open universe, $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.2`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ and $`H_0=75\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}\mathrm{Mpc}`$, the GRB rate per unit volume required to account for the observed BATSE rate is $`R_{\mathrm{GRB}}10^8\mathrm{Mpc}^3\mathrm{yr}^1`$, assuming a constant comoving GRB rate. Present data does not allow to distinguish between models in which the GRB rate is evolving with redshift, e.g. following star formation rate, and models in which it is not evolving, since in both cases most detected GRB’s occur at the redshfit range of 1–3 (Hogg & Fruchter (1999)). Thus, $`R_{\mathrm{GRB}}`$ provides a robust estimate of the rate at $`z1`$, while the present, $`z=0`$, rate may be lower by a factor of $`8`$ if strong redshift evolution is assumed. This implies that the present rate of $`\gamma `$-ray energy generation by GRB’s is in the range of $`10^{44}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{Mpc}^3\mathrm{yr}`$ to $`10^{45}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{Mpc}^3\mathrm{yr}`$, remarkably similar to the energy generation rate required to account for the observed UHECR flux above $`10^{19}`$ eV, $`10^{44}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{Mpc}^3\mathrm{yr}`$ (Waxman 1995b ; Waxman & Bahcall (1999)).

### 3.2 Neutrino production

The photon distribution in the wind rest frame is isotropic. Denoting by $`n_\gamma (ϵ_\gamma )dϵ_\gamma `$ the number density (in the wind rest frame) of photons in the energy range $`ϵ_\gamma `$ to $`ϵ_\gamma +dϵ_\gamma `$, the fractional energy loss rate of a proton with energy $`ϵ_p`$ due to pion production is

$`t_\pi ^1(ϵ_p)`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{ϵ_p}}{\displaystyle \frac{dϵ_p}{dt}}`$   
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\gamma _p^2}}c{\displaystyle _{ϵ_0}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑ϵ\sigma _\pi (ϵ)\xi (ϵ)ϵ{\displaystyle _{ϵ/2\gamma _p}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑xx^2n(x),`$ (9)   
where $`\gamma _p=ϵ_p/m_pc^2`$, $`\sigma _\pi (ϵ)`$ is the cross section for pion production for a photon with energy $`ϵ`$ in the proton rest frame, $`\xi (ϵ)`$ is the average fraction of energy lost to the pion, and $`ϵ_0=0.15\mathrm{GeV}`$ is the threshold energy.

The photon density is related to the observed luminosity by $`n(x)=L_ϵ(\mathrm{\Gamma }x)/(4\pi r^2c\mathrm{\Gamma }x)`$. For proton Lorentz factor $`ϵ_0/2ϵ_{\gamma c}\gamma _p<ϵ_0/2ϵ_{\gamma m}`$, photo-meson production is dominated by interaction with photons in the energy range $`ϵ_{\gamma m}<ϵ_\gamma ϵ_{\gamma c}`$, where $`L_ϵϵ_\gamma ^{1/2}`$. For this photon spectrum, the contribution to the first integral of Eq. (9) from photons at the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance is comparable to that of photons of higher energy, and we obtain

$$t_\pi ^1(ϵ_p)\frac{2^{5/2}}{2.5}\frac{L_m}{4\pi r^2\mathrm{\Gamma }}\left(\frac{ϵ_{\mathrm{peak}}}{\gamma _pϵ_{\gamma m}}\right)^{1/2}\frac{\sigma _{\mathrm{peak}}\xi _{\mathrm{peak}}\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ}{ϵ_{\mathrm{peak}}}.$$
(10)   
Here, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{peak}}5\times 10^{28}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`\xi _{\mathrm{peak}}0.2`$ at the resonance $`ϵ=ϵ_{\mathrm{peak}}=0.3\mathrm{GeV}`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ0.2\mathrm{GeV}`$ is the peak width. The time available for proton energy loss by pion production is comparable to the expansion time as measured in the wind rest frame, $`r/\mathrm{\Gamma }c`$. Thus, the fraction of energy lost by protons to pions is

$`f_\pi (ϵ_p^{\mathrm{ob}.})`$ $`0.05\left({\displaystyle \frac{L_m}{6\times 10^{60}\mathrm{s}^1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{250}}\right)^5T_1^1`$ (11)   
$`\times (ϵ_{\gamma m,\mathrm{eV}}^{\mathrm{ob}.}ϵ_{p,20}^{\mathrm{ob}.})^{1/2}.`$   
Eq. (11) is valid for protons in the energy range

$`4\times 10^{18}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{250}}\right)^2(ϵ_{\gamma c,\mathrm{keV}}^{\mathrm{ob}.})^1\mathrm{eV}<ϵ_p^{\mathrm{ob}.}<`$   
$`4\times 10^{21}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{250}}\right)^2(ϵ_{\gamma m,\mathrm{eV}}^{\mathrm{ob}.})^1\mathrm{eV}.`$ (12)   
Such protons interact with photons in the energy range $`ϵ_{\gamma m}`$ to $`ϵ_{\gamma c}`$, where the photon spectrum $`L_ϵϵ_{\gamma c}^{1/2}`$ and the number of photons above interaction threshold is $`ϵ_p^{1/2}`$. At lower energy, protons interact with photons of energy $`ϵ_\gamma >ϵ_{\gamma c}`$, where $`L_ϵϵ^1`$ rather then $`L_ϵϵ^{1/2}`$. At these energies therefore $`f_\pi ϵ_p^{\mathrm{ob}.}`$.

Since the flow is ultra-relativistic, the results given above are independent of whether the wind is spherically symmetric or jet-like, provided the jet opening angle is $`>1/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ . For a jet-like wind, $`L_m`$ is the luminosity that would have been produced by the wind if it were spherically symmetric.

## 4 Neutrino spectrum and flux

Approximately half of the energy lost by protons goes into $`\pi ^0`$ ’s and the other half to $`\pi ^+`$ ’s. Neutrinos are produced by the decay of $`\pi ^+`$’s, $`\pi ^+\mu ^++\nu _\mu e^++\nu _e+\overline{\nu }_\mu +\nu _\mu `$. The mean pion energy is $`20\%`$ of the proton energy. This energy is roughly evenly distributed between the $`\pi ^+`$ decay products. Thus, approximately half the energy lost by protons of energy $`ϵ_p`$ is converted to neutrinos with energy $`0.05ϵ_p`$. Eq. (12) implies that the spectrum of neutrinos below $`ϵ_{\nu b}^{\mathrm{ob}.}10^{17}(\mathrm{\Gamma }/250)^2(ϵ_{\gamma c,\mathrm{keV}}^{\mathrm{ob}.})^1\mathrm{eV}`$ is harder by one power of the energy then the proton spectrum, and by half a power of the energy at higher energy. For a power law differential spectrum of accelerated protons $`n(ϵ_p)ϵ_p^2`$, as expected for Fermi acceleration and which could produce the observed spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (Waxman 1995b), the differential neutrino spectrum is $`n(ϵ_\nu )ϵ_\nu ^\alpha `$ with $`\alpha =1`$ below the break and $`\alpha =3/2`$ above the break.

The energy production rate required to produce the observed flux of ultra-high energy cosmic-rays, assuming that the sources are cosmologically distributed, is (Waxman 1995b)

$$E_{CR}^2d\dot{N}_{CR}/dE_{CR}10^{44}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{Mpc}^3\mathrm{yr}^1.$$
(13)   
If GRB’s are indeed the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, then Eqs. (11,12) imply that the expected neutrino intensity is

$$ϵ_\nu ^2\mathrm{\Phi }_\nu 10^{10}\frac{f_\pi ^{[19]}}{0.1}\left(\frac{ϵ_\nu ^{\mathrm{ob}.}}{10^{17}\mathrm{eV}}\right)^\beta \mathrm{GeV}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{sr}^1,$$
(14)   
where $`f_\pi ^{[19]}f_\pi (ϵ_{p,20}^{\mathrm{ob}.}=2)`$ and $`\beta =1/2`$ for $`ϵ_\nu ^{\mathrm{ob}.}>10^{17}\mathrm{eV}`$ and $`\beta =1`$ for $`ϵ_\nu ^{\mathrm{ob}.}<10^{17}\mathrm{eV}`$. The fluxes of all neutrinos are similar and given by Eq. (14), $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _\mu }\mathrm{\Phi }_{\overline{\nu }_\mu }\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _e}\mathrm{\Phi }_\nu `$. Eq. (14) is obtained by integrating the neutrino generation rate implied by Eq. (13) and (11) over cosmological time, under the assumption that the generation rate is independent of cosmic time (Waxman & Bahcall 1999). If the GRB energy generation rate increases with redshift in a manner similar to the evolution of the QSO luminosity density, which exhibits the fastest known redshift evolution, the expected neutrino flux would be $`3`$ times that given in Eq. (14) (Waxman & Bahcall 1999).

The neutrino flux is expected to be strongly suppressed at energy $`ϵ_\nu ^{\mathrm{ob}.}>10^{19}`$ eV, since protons are not expected to be accelerated to energy $`ϵ_p^{\mathrm{ob}.}10^{20}`$ eV. If protons are accelerated to much higher energy, the $`\nu _\mu `$ flux may extend to $`10^{21}`$ eV. At higher energy the ejecta expansion time $`\mathrm{\Gamma }T`$ is shorter than the pion decay time, leading to strong suppression of $`\nu _\mu `$ flux due to adiabatic energy loss at $`ϵ_\nu ^{\mathrm{ob}.}>10^{21}T_1(\mathrm{\Gamma }/250)^2`$ eV. Adiabatic energy loss of muons will suppress the $`\overline{\nu }_\mu `$ and $`\nu _e`$ flux at $`ϵ_\nu ^{\mathrm{ob}.}>10^{19}T_1(\mathrm{\Gamma }/250)^2`$ eV.

## 5 Discussion

When the expanding fireball of a GRB collides with the surrounding medium, reverse shocks are created that give rise to observed afterglow by synchrotron radiation. The specific luminosity and energy spectrum describing these processes are given in Eq. (4)-Eq. (6). For typical values of the plasma parameters and fireball Lorentz factor, these equations are consistent with the afterglow observations. The burst GRB 990123 was especially luminous and also for this burst the relations Eq. (4)-Eq. (6) are consistent with the observation of a reverse shock and the other afterglow phenomena.

If protons are accelerated in GRB’s up to energies $`10^{20}`$ eV, then the expected flux of high energy neutrinos is given by Eq. (14) and (11). Muon energy loss suppresses the $`\overline{\nu }_\mu `$ and $`\nu _e`$ flux above $`10^{19}`$ eV, while pion energy loss suppresses the $`\nu _\mu `$ flux only above $`10^{21}`$ eV. Since protons are not expected to be accelerated to $`10^{20}`$ eV (Waxman 1995a), the energy beyond which the $`\nu _\mu `$ flux is suppressed will likely be determined by the maximum energy of accelerated protons. Measuring the maximum neutrino energy will set a lower limit to the maximum proton energy. The predicted flux is sensitive to the value of the Lorentz factor of the reverse shock (see Eq. 11), but this value is given robustly by Eq. (3) as $`\mathrm{\Gamma }250`$.

Will the ultra-high energy neutrinos predicted in this letter be detectable? The sensitivities of high-energy neutrino detectors have not been determined for ultra-high energy neutrinos whose time of occurrence is known to within $`10`$ s and whose direction on the sky is known accurately. Special techniques may enhance the detection of GRB neutrinos (see below).

Planned $`1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}^3`$ detectors of high energy neutrinos include ICECUBE, ANTARES, NESTOR (Halzen 1999) and NuBE (Roy, Crawford, & Trattner 1999). Neutrinos are detected by observing optical Cherenkov light emitted by neutrino-induced muons. The probability $`P_{\nu \mu }`$ that a neutrino would produce a high energy muon with the currently required long path within the detector is $`P_{\nu \mu }3\times 10^3(ϵ_\nu /10^{17}\mathrm{eV})^{1/2}`$ (Gaisser, Halzen & Stanev 1995; Gandhi, Quig, Reno, & Sarcevic 1998). Using (14), the expected detection rate of muon neutrinos is $`0.06/\mathrm{km}^2\mathrm{yr}`$ (over $`2\pi `$ sr), or $`3`$ times larger if GRB’s evolve like quasars. GRB neutrinos may be detectable in these experiments because the knowledge of neutrino direction and arrival time may relax the requirement for long muon path within the detector.

Air-showers could be used to detect ultra-high energy neutrinos. The neutrino acceptance of the planned Auger detector, $`10^4\mathrm{km}^3\mathrm{sr}`$ (Parente & Zas 1996), seems too low. The effective area of proposed space detectors (Linsley 1985; Takahashi 1995) may exceed $`10^6\mathrm{km}^2`$ at $`ϵ_\nu >2\times 10^{19}`$ eV, detecting several tens of GRB correlated events per year, provided that the neutrino flux extends to $`ϵ_\nu >2\times 10^{19}`$ eV. Since, however, the GRB neutrino flux is not expected to extend well above $`ϵ_\nu 10^{19}`$ eV, and since the acceptance of space detectors decrease rapidly below $`10^{19}`$ eV, the detection rate of space detectors would depend sensitively on their low energy threshold.

As explained in Waxman & Bahcall (1997), $`\nu _\tau `$’s are not expected to be produced in the GRB. However, the strong mixing between $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ favored by Super-Kamiokande observations of atmospheric neutrinos indicates that the flux of $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ should be equal at Earth. This conclusion would not hold if the less favored alternative of $`\nu _\mu `$ to $`\nu _{\mathrm{sterile}}`$ occurs.

The decay of $`\pi ^0`$’s produced in photo-meson interactions would lead to the production of $`10^{19}`$ eV photons. For the photon luminosity and spectrum given in Eqs. (46), the fireball optical depth for pair production is higher than unity for $`ϵ_\gamma >10`$ GeV. Thus, the ultra-high energy photons would be degraded and will escape the fireball as multi-GeV photons. Since in order for GRB’s to be the sources of ultra-high energy protons similar energy should be produced in $`1`$ MeV photons and $`10^{20}`$ eV protons (Waxman 1995b), the expected multi-GeV integrated luminosity is $`10\%`$ of the $`1`$ MeV integrated luminosity, i.e. $`10^6\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Such multi-GeV emission has been detected in several GRB’s on time scale of $`>10`$ s following the GRB, and may be common (Dingus 1995). This is not, however, conclusive evidence for proton acceleration to ultra-high energy. For the parameters adopted in this paper, inverse-Compton scattering of synchrotron photons may also produce the observed multi-GeV photons. More wide spectrum observations, of optical to $`>10`$ GeV photons, are required to determine whether the observed multi-GeV emission on $`10`$ s is due to inverse-Compton or $`\pi ^0`$ decay.

We note here that Multi-GeV photon production by synchrotron emission of $`10^{20}`$ eV protons accelerated at the highly-relativistic external shock driven by the fireball into its surround medium has been discussed in Vietri (1997b) and Bottcehr & Dermer (1998). However, protons are not likely to be accelerated to such energy at the external shock (Gallant & Achterberg 1999), and, moreover, even if acceleration is possible, the fraction of proton energy lost by synchrotron emission at the radii where external shocks occur is $`1`$, \[see discussion following Eq. (8)\] and hence the expected flux is much smaller than the inverse-Compton or $`\pi ^0`$ decay flux.

JNB was supported in part by NSF PHY95-13835. EW was supported in part by BSF Grant 9800343, AEC Grant 38/99 and MINERVA Grant.