Production of high-energy μ neutrinos from young neutron stars

Young, rapidly rotating neutron stars could accelerate protons to energies of ∼ 1 PeV close to the stellar surface, which scatter with x-rays from the stellar surface through the Δ resonance and produce pions. The pions subsequently decay to produce muon neutrinos. We find that the energy spectrum of muon neutrinos consists of a sharp rise at ∼ 50 TeV, corresponding to the onset of the resonance, above which the flux drops as an upper-energy cut-off that is determined by either kinematics or by the maximum energy to which protons are accelerated. We predict event rates as high as 10-50 km−2 yr−1 from relatively young, close neutron stars. Such fluxes would be detectable by IceCube.