IceCube astrophysical neutrinos without a spectral cutoff and (10^15-10^17) eV cosmic gamma radiation

Abstract

We present a range of unbroken power-law fits to the astrophysical-neutrino spectrum consistent with the most recent published IceCube data at the 68\% confidence level. Assuming that the neutrinos originate in decays of pi mesons, we estimate accompanying gamma-ray fluxes for various distributions of sources, taking propagation effects into account. We then briefly discuss existing experimental results constraining PeV to EeV diffuse gamma-ray flux and their systematic uncertainties. Several scenarios are marginally consistent both with the KASKADE and CASA-MIA upper limits at (10^15-10^16) eV and with the EAS-MSU tentative detection at ~10^17 eV, given large systematic errors of the measurements. Future searches for the diffuse gamma-ray background at sub-PeV to sub-EeV energies just below present upper limits will give a crucial diagnostic tool for distinguishing between the Galactic and extragalactic models of the origin of the IceCube events.

arXiv comment11 pages, 3 figures, revtex. V.2: references added and corrected

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Cited by in corpus (26)

• Testing the Dark Matter Scenario for PeV Neutrinos Observed in IceCube
• Spectral analysis of the high-energy IceCube neutrinos
• Constraining heavy decaying dark matter with the high energy gamma-ray limits
• Gamma-ray bounds from EAS detectors and heavy decaying dark matter constraints
• A Possible Two-component Flux for the High Energy Neutrino Events at IceCube
• Astrophysical neutrinos flavored with Beyond the Standard Model physics
• KASCADE-Grande Limits on the Isotropic Diffuse Gamma-Ray Flux between 100 TeV and 1 EeV
• Analysis of the 4-year IceCube high-energy starting events
• Unifying leptogenesis, dark matter and high-energy neutrinos with right-handed neutrino mixing via Higgs portal
• A Case for Radio Galaxies as the Sources of IceCube's Astrophysical Neutrino Flux
• High-energy Neutrinos from Multi-body Decaying Dark Matter
• Constraints on the models of the origin of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos
• Constraints on the flux of $\sim (10^{16}-10^{17.5})$ eV cosmic photons from the EAS-MSU muon data
• Search for Galactic disk and halo components in the arrival directions of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos
• Hadronically decaying heavy dark matter and high-energy neutrino limits
• Fluxes of diffuse gamma rays and neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions with circumgalactic gas
• Search for astrophysical PeV gamma rays from point sources with Carpet-2
• Carpet-2 search for PeV gamma rays associated with IceCube high-energy neutrino events
• High-Energy Gamma Rays and Neutrinos from Nearby Radio Galaxies
• Carpet-2 search for gamma rays above 100 TeV in coincidence with HAWC and IceCube alerts
• Lepton-pair Cerenkov radiation emitted by tachyonic neutrinos: Lorentz-covariant approach and IceCube data
• Search for cosmic gamma rays with the Carpet-2 extensive air shower array
• Search for a diffuse flux of photons with energies above tens of PeV at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Carpet results on astrophysical gamma rays above 100 TeV
• Upper limits on the isotropic diffuse flux of cosmic PeV photons from Carpet-2 observations
• On the contribution of cosmic-ray interactions in the circumgalactic gas to the observed high-energy neutrino flux