American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 1(755), p. L4, 2012
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/755/1/l4
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The surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory can detect neutrinos with energy E{sub {nu}} between 10{sup 17} eV and 10{sup 20} eV from point-like sources across the sky south of +55 Degree-Sign and north of -65 Degree-Sign declinations. A search has been performed for highly inclined extensive air showers produced by the interaction of neutrinos of all flavors in the atmosphere (downward-going neutrinos), and by the decay of tau leptons originating from tau neutrino interactions in Earth's crust (Earth-skimming neutrinos). No candidate neutrinos have been found in data up to 2010 May 31. This corresponds to an equivalent exposure of {approx}3.5 years of a full surface detector array for the Earth-skimming channel and {approx}2 years for the downward-going channel. An improved upper limit on the diffuse flux of tau neutrinos has been derived. Upper limits on the neutrino flux from point-like sources have been derived as a function of the source declination. Assuming a differential neutrino flux k{sub PS} {center_dot} E {sup -2}{sub {nu}} from a point-like source, 90% confidence level upper limits for k{sub PS} at the level of Almost-Equal-To 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -7} and 2.5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -6} GeV cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} have been obtained over a broad range of declinations from the searches for Earth-skimming and downward-going neutrinos, respectively.