Decays of Long-Lived Relics and Their Signatures at IceCube

Abstract

We consider long-lived relic particles as the source of the PeV-scale neutrinos detected at the IceCube observatory over the last six years. We derive the present day neutrino flux, including primary neutrinos from direct decays, secondary neutrinos from electroweak showering, and tertiary neutrinos from re-scatters off the relic neutrino background. We compare the high-energy neutrino flux prediction to the most recently available datasets and find qualitative differences to expected spectra from other astrophysical processes. We utilize electroweak corrections to constrain heavy decaying relic abundances, using measurements impacted by electromagnetic energy injection, such as light element abundances during Big Bang nucleosynthesis, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, and diffuse $\gamma$-ray spectra. We compare these abundances to those necessary to source the IceCube neutrinos and find two viable regions in parameter space, ultimately testable by future neutrino, $\gamma$-ray, and cosmic microwave background observatories.

arXiv comment19 pages, 6 figures. v2: Small corrections/additional references added. v3: matches published JHEP version. Figure 3 added to show projected $\gamma$-ray spectra. Figure 6 updated to include spectrum without EW shower

References in corpus (50)

• The Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum from the Full COBE/FIRAS Data Set
• Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector
• An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum
• The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE): A Nulling Polarimeter for Cosmic Microwave Background Observations
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Hadronically and Electromagnetically Decaying Relic Neutral Particles
• Updated Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Unstable Relic Particles
• Testing the Hadronuclear Origin of PeV Neutrinos Observed with IceCube
• Weak Corrections are Relevant for Dark Matter Indirect Detection
• Diffuse Neutrino Intensity from the Inner Jets of Active Galactic Nuclei: Impacts of External Photon Fields and the Blazar Sequence
• General Constraints on Dark Matter Decay from the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Cosmological constraints on exotic injection of electromagnetic energy
• Signs of Dark Matter at 21-cm?
• Gravitino Production in the Inflationary Universe and the Effects on Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Star-forming galaxies as the origin of diffuse high-energy backgrounds: Gamma-ray and neutrino connections, and implications for starburst history
• IceCube: An Instrument for Neutrino Astronomy
• Cosmological Moduli and the Post-Inflationary Universe: A Critical Review
• Gamma-ray Constraints on Decaying Dark Matter and Implications for IceCube
• Testing the Dark Matter Scenario for PeV Neutrinos Observed in IceCube
• Are IceCube neutrinos unveiling PeV-scale decaying dark matter?
• Role of line-of-sight cosmic ray interactions in forming the spectra of distant blazars in TeV gamma rays and high-energy neutrinos
• The high energy cosmic ray spectrum from relic particle decay
• Are both BL Lacs and pulsar wind nebulae the astrophysical counterparts of IceCube neutrino events?
• Superheavy dark matter and IceCube neutrino signals:bounds on decaying dark matter
• Electromagnetic Cascade in the Early Universe and its Application to the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis
• On the Importance of Electroweak Corrections for Majorana Dark Matter Indirect Detection
• PeV neutrinos from intergalactic interactions of cosmic rays emitted by active galactic nuclei
• Electroweak Splitting Functions and High Energy Showering
• IceCube events and decaying dark matter: hints and constraints
• Probing the stability of superheavy dark matter particles with high-energy neutrinos
• Isocurvature Constraints on Portal Couplings
• Cosmic-Ray Neutrinos from the Decay of Long-Lived Particle and the Recent IceCube Result
• Sub-PeV Neutrinos from TeV Unidentified Sources in the Galaxy
• Non-universal BBN bounds on electromagnetically decaying particles
• Gamma-ray bounds from EAS detectors and heavy decaying dark matter constraints
• Electromagnetic Cascades and Cascade Nucleosynthesis in the Early Universe
• Neutrino Events at IceCube and the Fermi Bubbles
• Production of ultra-energetic cosmic rays through the decay of super-heavy X particles
• Bounds on Long-Lived Relics from Diffuse Gamma Ray Observations
• Heavy right-handed neutrino dark matter and PeV neutrinos at IceCube
• Geometric Compatibility of IceCube TeV-PeV Neutrino Excess and its Galactic Dark Matter Origin
• IceCube Events from Heavy DM decays through the Right-handed Neutrino Portal
• Pairwise sums in colourings of the reals
• A fussy revisitation of antiprotons as a tool for Dark Matter searches
• A Combined Astrophysical and Dark Matter Interpretation of the IceCube HESE and Throughgoing Muon Events
• The future of gamma-ray astronomy
• Multi-component Fermionic Dark Matter and IceCube PeV scale Neutrinos in Left-Right Model with Gauge Unification
• Cosmological Implications of High-Energy Neutrino Emission from the Decay of Long-Lived Particle
• The Galactic Contribution to IceCube's Astrophysical Neutrino Flux
• Probing decaying heavy dark matter with the 4-year IceCube HESE data
• Electroweak fragmentation functions for dark matter annihilation

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Constraints on the models of the origin of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos
• Resonant Neutrino Self-Interactions
• Constraints on Relic Magnetic Black Holes
• A Model of Metastable EeV Dark Matter
• Binary Collisions of Dark Matter Blobs