- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine
Access Provided by Xinjiang University

Physical Review D

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Standard model explanation of the ultrahigh energy neutrino events at IceCube

Chien-Yi Chen1, P. S. Bhupal Dev2, and Amarjit Soni1

  • 1Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
  • 2Consortium for Fundamental Physics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom

PDF

Phys. Rev. D 89, 033012 – Published 25 February, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.89.033012

Abstract

The recent observation of two PeV events at IceCube, followed by an additional 26 events between 30 and 300 TeV, has generated considerable speculations on its origin, and many exotic new physics explanations have been invoked. For a reliable interpretation, it is, however, important to first scrutinize the Standard Model (SM) expectations carefully, including the theoretical uncertainties, mainly due to the parton distribution functions. Assuming a new isotropic cosmic neutrino flux with a simple unbroken power-law spectrum, Φ∝E−s for the entire energy range of interest, we find that with s=1.5–2, the SM neutrino-nucleon interactions are sufficient to explain all the observed events so far, without the need for any beyond the SM explanation. With more statistics, this powerful detector could provide a unique test of the SM up to the PeV scale and lead to important clues of new physics.

View figure in article

Article Text

References (36)

  1. M. G. Aartsen et al. (IceCube Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 021103 (2013).
  2. For a review, see, e.g., J. K. Becker, Phys. Rep. 458, 173 (2008).
  3. M. G. Aartsen et al. (IceCube Collaboration), Science 342, 1242856 (2013).
  4. E. Roulet, G. Sigl, A. van Vliet, and S. Mollerach, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 01 (2013) 028; I. Cholis and D. Hooper, 06 (2013) 030; M. D. Kistler, T. Stanev, and H. Yuksel, arXiv:1301.1703; O. E. Kalashev, A. Kusenko, and W. Essey, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 041103 (2013); F. W. Stecker, Phys. Rev. D 88, 047301 (2013); R. Laha, J. F. Beacom, B. Dasgupta, S. Horiuchi, and K. Murase, 88, 043009 (2013); K. Murase, M. Ahlers, and B. C. Lacki, 88, 121301 (2013); L. A. Anchordoqui et al., arXiv:1306.5021; W. Winter, Phys. Rev. D 88, 083007 (2013).
  5. B. Feldstein, A. Kusenko, S. Matsumoto, and T. T. Yanagida, Phys. Rev. D 88, 015004 (2013); A. Esmaili and P. D. Serpico, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 11 (2013) 054.
  6. V. Barger and W.-Y. Keung, Phys. Lett. B 727, 190 (2013).
  7. P. Baerwald, M. Bustamante, and W. Winter, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10 (2012) 020; S. Pakvasa, A. Joshipura, and S. Mohanty, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 171802 (2013).
  8. A. S. Joshipura, S. Mohanty, and S. Pakvasa, arXiv:1307.5712.
  9. For a review, see, e.g., J. A. Formaggio and G. P. Zeller, Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 1307 (2012).
  10. S. Glashow, Phys. Rev. 118, 316 (1960).
  11. R. Gandhi, C. Quigg, M. H. Reno, and I. Sarcevic, Astropart. Phys. 5, 81 (1996).
  12. K. O. Mikaelian and I. M. Zheleznykh, Phys. Rev. D 22, 2122 (1980).
  13. R. D. Ball et al., Nucl. Phys. B867, 244 (2013); https://nnpdf.hepforge.org/.
  14. F. D. Aaron et al. (H1 and ZEUS Collaboration), J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2010) 109.
  15. A. Connolly, R. S. Thorne, and D. Waters, Phys. Rev. D 83, 113009 (2011).
  16. A. Cooper-Sarkar, P. Mertsch, and S. Sarkar, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2011) 042.
  17. A. Cooper-Sarkar (H1 and ZEUS Collaborations), arXiv:1012.1438.
  18. V. N. Gribov and L. N. Lipatov, Sov. J. Nucl. Phys. 15, 438 (1972); L. N. Lipatov, 20, 94 (1975); G. Altarelli and G. Parisi, Nucl. Phys. B126, 298 (1977); Yu. L. Dokshitzer, Sov. Phys. JETP 46, 641 (1977).
  19. For a review, see F. Gelis, E. Iancu, J. Jalilian-Marian, and R. Venugopalan, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 60, 463 (2010).
  20. V. P. Goncalves and P. Hepp, Phys. Rev. D 83, 014014 (2011); V. P. Goncalves and D. R. Gratieri, 88, 014022 (2013).
  21. Y. S. Jeong and M. H. Reno, Phys. Rev. D 81, 114012 (2010); M. Gluck, P. Jimenez-Delgado, and E. Reya, 81, 097501 (2010).
  22. A. Bhattacharya, R. Gandhi, W. Rodejohann, and A. Watanabe, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10 (2011) 017; arXiv:1209.2422; V. Barger, J. Learned, and S. Pakvasa, Phys. Rev. D 87, 037302 (2013).
  23. E. Fermi, Phys. Rev. 75, 1169 (1949).
  24. R. Abbasi et al. (IceCube Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 83, 092003 (2011); (IceCube Collaboration) , 84, 079902(E) (2011).
  25. S. Pakvasa, W. Rodejohann, and T. J. Weiler, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2008) 005; S. Choubey and W. Rodejohann, Phys. Rev. D 80, 113006 (2009).
  26. R. Gandhi, C. Quigg, M. H. Reno, and I. Sarcevic, Phys. Rev. D 58, 093009 (1998).
  27. J. F. Beacom, P. Crotty, and E. W. Kolb, Phys. Rev. D 66, 021302 (2002); E. Bugaev, T. Montaruli, Y. Shlepin, and I. A. Sokalski, Astropart. Phys. 21, 491 (2004); S. I. Dutta, M. H. Reno, and I. Sarcevic, Phys. Rev. D 66, 077302 (2002).
  28. M. P. Kowalski, Ph.D. thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2004.
  29. T. A. Gabriel, D. E. Groom, P. K. Job, N. V. Mokhov, and G. R. Stevenson, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 338, 336 (1994).
  30. J. G. Learned and S. Pakvasa, Astropart. Phys. 3, 267 (1995).
  31. http://icecube.wisc.edu/icecube/static/reports/IceCubeDesignDoc.pdf.
  32. R. Abbasi et al. (IceCube Collaboration), Astropart. Phys. 35, 615 (2012).
  33. A. D. Martin, W. J. Stirling, R. S. Thorne, and G. Watt, Eur. Phys. J. C 63, 189 (2009); https://mstwpdf.hepforge.org/code/code.html.
  34. K. Agashe, A. E. Blechman, and F. Petriello, Phys. Rev. D 74, 053011 (2006).
  35. R. Abbasi et al. (IceCube Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 84, 082001 (2011).
  36. R. Abbasi et al. (IceCube Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 86, 022005 (2012).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 89, 033012– Published 25 February, 2014
  • Received 16 September 2013

© 2014 American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation