The high-energy galactic tau neutrino flux and its atmospheric background

Abstract

We compare the tau neutrino flux arising from the galaxy and the earth atmosphere for 10(3) <= E/GeV <= 10(11). The intrinsic and oscillated tau neutrino fluxes from both sources are considered. We find that, for E >= 10(3) GeV, the oscillated nu(tau) flux along the galactic plane dominates over the maximal intrinsic atmospheric nu(tau) flux, i.e., the flux along the horizontal direction. We also briefly comment on the prospects for observing these high-energy tau neutrinos.