Combined constraints on the diffuse flux of cosmic neutrinos between 10^16 eV and 10^26 eV

Abstract

Experimental constraints on the diffuse neutrino flux above the PeV range have been obtained with Cherenkov neutrino telescopes, air-shower arrays, radio detectors in and above polar ice, and radio observations of the Moon. Published results use different flavor, energy-bin, and statistical conventions, so their flux limits cannot be combined directly. We reconstruct energy-dependent exposures of the published searches and place them in a common convention for the total all-flavor $\nu +\bar{\nu }$ flux over $10^{16}$-$10^{26}$ eV. Published event counts and expected backgrounds are combined with a Poisson likelihood, and 90% C.L. quasi-differential limits are obtained for one-decade $E_{\nu }^{-1}$ test spectra using a one-sided profile-likelihood construction. Folding theoretical spectra of cosmogenic neutrinos and selected new-physics scenarios with the combined energy-dependent exposure yields constraints on their flux normalizations. This homogeneous analysis provides a reproducible observational benchmark across ten decades in neutrino energy and a common reference for current and projected searches.

arXiv comment29 pages, 7 figures, Natural Science Review (https://nsr.jinr.int) style. Ancillary files contain data tables