End of the cosmic neutrino energy spectrum

Abstract

There may be a high-energy cutoff of neutrino events in IceCube data. In particular, IceCube does not observe either continuum events above 2 PeV, or the Standard Model Glashow-resonance events expected at 6.3 PeV. There are also no higher energy neutrino signatures in the ANITA and Auger experiments. This absence of high-energy neutrino events motivates a fundamental restriction on neutrino energies above a few PeV. We postulate a simple scenario to terminate the neutrino spectrum that is Lorentz-invariance violating, but with a limiting neutrino velocity that is always smaller than the speed of light. If the limiting velocity of the neutrino applies also to its associated charged lepton, then a significant consequence is that the two-body decay modes of the charged pion are forbidden above two times the maximum neutrino energy, while the radiative decay modes are suppressed at higher energies. Such stabilized pions may serve as cosmic ray primaries.

arXiv comment6 pages. Version to appear in PLB

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• Glashow resonance as a window into cosmic neutrino sources
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• IceCube's astrophysical neutrino energy spectrum from CPT violation
• Cutoff of IceCube Neutrino Spectrum due to t-channel Resonant Absorption by C$\nu$B
• Searching New Particles at Neutrino Telescopes with Quantum-Gravitational Decoherence
• Lorentz invariance violation as an explanation of muon excess in Auger data
• On the non-detection of Glashow resonance in IceCube
• Explanation of IceCube spectrum with $\nu \to 3\nu$ neutrino splitting in a $\nu$2HDM model
• Looking forward to forward physics at the CERN's LHC
• Search for the Footprints of New Physics with Laboratory and Cosmic Neutrinos
• Testing Lorentz Symmetry using High Energy Astrophysics Observations
• Lorentz Invariance Violation and IceCube Neutrino Events