Choked Jets and Low-Luminosity Gamma-Ray Bursts as Hidden Neutrino Sources

Nicholas Senno, Kohta Murase, Peter Meszaros

Published 2015-12-28Version 1

We consider choked gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets as possible sources of high-energy cosmic neutrinos. We take into account the jet propagation physics and radiation constraints, which are relevant for high-energy neutrino production in dense environments. Efficient shock acceleration of cosmic rays inside a high density stellar environment is possible for sufficiently low-power jets and/or jets buried in an extended envelope, and such conditions are favorable also for the GRB jets to become stalled. Such choked jets may explain transrelativistic SNe and low-luminosity (LL) GRBs. Focusing on this possibility, we calculate the resulting neutrino spectra including the relevant microphysical processes such as multipion production in pp and pgamma interactions, as well as the energy losses of mesons and muons. We obtain diffuse neutrino spectra using the latest results on the luminosity function of LL GRBs. Although current uncertainties are large, we confirm that LL GRBs can potentially give a significant contribution to the diffuse neutrino flux. The results may be compatible with the IceCube data around 10-100 TeV without contradicting the IceCube limits on classical GRBs, and high-energy neutrino production in choked jets is dominated by pgamma interactions. These sources are dark in GeV-TeV gamma rays, and do not contribute significantly to the Fermi diffuse gamma-ray background. The precursor TeV neutrinos emerging prior to the shock breakout emission can be used as smoking gun evidence for a choked jet model for LL GRBs. Our results strengthen the relevance of wide field-of-view sky monitors with better sensitivities in the 10-1000 keV range.