High-energy neutrinos from the cosmic accelerator RX J1713.7-3946

The observation of TeV-gamma rays of $\pi^0$ origin from the supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946 has 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 at least 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.