Probing the birth of fast rotating magnetars through high-energy neutrinos

Abstract

We investigate the high-energy neutrino emission expected from newly born magnetars surrounded by their stellar ejecta. Protons might be accelerated up to 0.1-100 EeV energies possibly by, e.g., the wave dissipation in the winds, leading to hadronic interactions in the stellar ejecta. The resulting PeV-EeV neutrinos can be detected by IceCube/KM3Net with a typical peak time scale of a few days after the birth of magnetars, making the characteristic soft-hard-soft behavior. Detections would be important as a clue to the formation mechanism of magnetars, although there are ambiguities coming from uncertainties of several parameters such as velocity of the ejecta. Non-detections would also lead to useful constraints on the scenario.

5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in PRD