ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 02 05 40 8 v 2 3 0 M ay 2 00 2 High - energy Neutrinos from the Cosmic Accelerator RX J 1713 . 7 - 3946

The observation of TeV-gamma rays of π 0 origin from the supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946 might have revealed the first specific site where protons are accelerated to energies typical of the main component of the cosmic rays. In this letter we calculate the high-energy neutrino flux associated with this source to be 40 muon-type neutrinos per kilometer-squared per year. We perform the same calculations for other known sources of TeV-gamma rays and show how neutrino observations can establish whether the TeV-gamma rays emitted by blazars and supernova remnants are the decay products of neutral pions and thus unequivocally establish the sources as cosmic accelerators.