Cosmic neutrino cascades from secret neutrino interactions

Abstract

The first detection of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos by IceCube provides new opportunities for tests of neutrino properties. The long baseline through the Cosmic Neutrino Background (C$\nu$B) is particularly useful for directly testing secret neutrino interactions ($\nu$SI) that would cause neutrino-neutrino elastic scattering at a larger rate than the usual weak interactions. We show that IceCube can provide competitive sensitivity to $\nu$SI compared to other astrophysical and cosmological probes, which are complementary to laboratory tests. We study the spectral distortions caused by $\nu$SI with a large s-channel contribution, which can lead to a dip, bump, or cutoff on an initially smooth spectrum. Consequently, $\nu$SI may be an exotic solution for features seen in the IceCube energy spectrum. More conservatively, IceCube neutrino data could be used to set model-independent limits on $\nu$SI. Our phenomenological estimates provide guidance for more detailed calculations, comparisons to data, and model building.

12 pages, 7 figures, expanded discussion on detection prospects, matches the published version

References in corpus (17)

• Is dark matter with long-range interactions a solution to all small-scale problems of ΛCDM cosmology?
• GZK Neutrinos after the Fermi-LAT Diffuse Photon Flux Measurement
• Multiple Spectral Splits of Supernova Neutrinos
• Cosmological bounds on dark matter-neutrino interactions
• Self-induced decoherence in dense neutrino gases
• Constraining Very Heavy Dark Matter Using Diffuse Backgrounds of Neutrinos and Cascaded Gamma Rays
• IceCube PeV-EeV Neutrinos and Secret Interactions of Neutrinos
• A New Two Higgs Doublet Model
• Neutrino scattering and flavor transformation in supernovae
• Primordial Neutrinos
• Revising Limits on Neutrino-Majoron Couplings
• Constraints on Light Dark Matter From Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Cosmogenic neutrinos as a probe of the transition from Galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays
• Enhancing Dark Matter Annihilation into Neutrinos
• Detecting MeV Gauge Bosons With High-Energy Neutrino Telescopes
• Probing Late Neutrino Mass Properties with Supernova Neutrinos
• Neutrino Coannihilation on Dark-Matter Relics?

Cited by in corpus (26)

• Sterile Neutrinos
• Lepton flavor violating Z' explanation of the muon anomalous magnetic moment
• BBN And The CMB Constrain Neutrino Coupled Light WIMPs
• Interacting neutrinos in cosmology: exact description and constraints
• Neutrinophilic Non-Standard Interactions
• Testing decay of astrophysical neutrinos with incomplete information
• Spectral analysis of the high-energy IceCube neutrinos
• Detecting the $L_{\mu }-L_{\tau }$ gauge boson at Belle II
• IceCube events and decaying dark matter: hints and constraints
• Inflation meets neutrinos
• Boltzmann hierarchy for interacting neutrinos I: formalism
• Mind the gap on Icecube: Cosmic neutrino spectrum and muon anomalous magnetic moment in the gauged L_μ - L_τ model
• Mono-Neutrino at DUNE: New Signals From Neutrinophilic Thermal Dark Matter
• Neutrino-nucleus cross sections for W-boson and trident production
• W-boson and trident production in TeV--PeV neutrino observatories
• Probing decaying heavy dark matter with the 4-year IceCube HESE data
• Aspects of the Flavor Triangle for Cosmic Neutrino Propagation
• Estimating the contribution of Galactic sources to the diffuse neutrino flux
• Light sterile neutrinos from a late phase transition
• A new physics interpretation of the IceCube data
• Neutrino Flavor Transformations from New Short-Range Forces
• Viable models for large non-standard neutrino interactions
• Helicity-changing Decays of Cosmological Relic Neutrinos
• Beyond Standard Neutrino Theory
• Anapole Dark Matter Interactions as Soft Hidden Photons
• Mind the Gap on IceCube: Cosmic neutrino spectrum and muon anomalous magnetic moment