2012/07/31 by V. Barger, J. Learned, J. G. Learned +2 · 34 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Annihilation #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Cascade #Cosmic microwave background #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Electron #Electron neutrino #Gamma ray #Hadron #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Neutrino detector #Neutrino oscillation #Neutron #Nuclear physics #Particle physics #Photon #Physics #Pion #Resonance (particle physics) #astro-ph.HE #hep-ex #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.87.037302
published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 87(3) (American Physical Society) · revised title; updated text
arxiv created 2013/02/03 · openalex publication_date 2013/02/22 · arxiv updated 2015/06/05 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We propose an interpretation of the two neutrino initiated cascade events with PeV energies observed by IceCube: Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray protons (or Fe nuclei) scatter on cosmic microwave background photons through the Delta-resonance (the Berezinsky-Zatsepin process) yielding charged pions and neutrons. The neutron decays give electron-antineutrinos which undergo neutrino oscillations to populate all antineutrino flavors, but the electron-antineutrino flux remains dominant. At 6.3 PeV electron-antineutrino energy their annihilation on electrons in the IceCube detector is enhanced by the Glashow resonance (the W-boson) whose decays can give the PeV showers observed in the IceCube detector. The two observed showers with \ensuremath∼1 PeV energies would need to be from W leptonic decays to electrons and taus. An order of magnitude higher event rate of showers at 6.3 PeV is predicted from W to hadron decays. This interpretation can be tested in the near term. It has significant physics implications on the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays, since neutrino events and cosmic ray events likely share a common origin.