Study of TeV Neutrinos with Upward Showering Muons in Super-Kamiokande

TL;DR

This paper analyzes high-energy upward showering muons in Super-Kamiokande to study TeV neutrinos, their angular distribution, and potential astrophysical sources, providing insights into neutrino properties and cosmic phenomena.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed analysis of upward showering muons at TeV energies, including their angular distribution and searches for astrophysical sources.

Findings

Angular distribution consistent with negligible neutrino oscillations at TeV energies

No significant detection of point sources or diffuse flux from astrophysical objects

Constraints on WIMP annihilation signals in the Sun, Earth, and Galactic Center

Abstract

A subset of neutrino-induced upward through-going muons in the Super-Kamiokande detector consists of high energy muons which lose energy through radiative processes such as bremsstrahlung, e^{+} e^{-} pair production and photonuclear interactions. These ``upward showering muons'' comprise an event sample whose mean parent neutrino energy is approximately 1 TeV. We show that the zenith angle distribution of upward showering muons is consistent with negligible distortion due to neutrino oscillations, as expected of such a high-energy neutrino sample. We present astronomical searches using these high energy events, such as those from WIMP annihilations in the Sun, Earth and Galactic Center, some suspected point sources, as well as searches for diffuse flux from the interstellar medium.