Ultra-high energy event KM3-230213A as a cosmogenic neutrino in light of minimal UHECR flux models

Abstract

Recently, the KM3NeT experiment reported the detection of a neutrino with exceptionally high energy E = 220 PeV, whose origin remains unclear. The corresponding value of the neutrino flux is in tension with the results of other high-energy neutrino experiments. In this study, we discuss the possibility that this neutrino is cosmogenic, i. e., produced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) during their propagation through the intergalactic medium. We adopt the UHECR flux models derived by the Telescope Array experiment, which features a predominantly light mass composition. We show that the predictions of the cosmogenic neutrino flux in these models are consistent with the measurements of the KM3NeT-only and with that of the "global neutrino observatory" at approximately 2$\sigma$ level. Notably, this result is achieved in a minimal version of the UHECR flux models, that assume one source population with a standard cosmological evolution. We also estimate the corresponding cosmogenic gamma-ray flux and show that it is consistent with Fermi-LAT IGRB measurements and UHE gamma-ray limits; the improvement of the latter can probe these predictions in future.

12 pages, 5 figures; accepted to JETP Lett

References in corpus (8)

• The spectrum of isotropic diffuse gamma-ray emission between 100 MeV and 820 GeV
• Cosmogenic Neutrinos: parameter space and detectabilty from PeV to ZeV
• CRPropa 3.2 -- an advanced framework for high-energy particle propagation in extragalactic and galactic spaces
• KASCADE-Grande Limits on the Isotropic Diffuse Gamma-Ray Flux between 100 TeV and 1 EeV
• Constraints on the proton fraction of cosmic rays at the highest energies and the consequences for cosmogenic neutrinos and photons
• Differences Between the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array Spectra: Systematic Effects or Indication of a Local Source of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays?
• A nearby source of ultra-high energy cosmic rays
• Superheavy Supersymmetric Dark Matter for the origin of KM3NeT Ultra-High Energy signal