Galactic PeV Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper investigates the Galactic origin of PeV neutrinos detected by IceCube, proposing that hadronic interactions of cosmic rays with interstellar matter within our Galaxy can explain these events, and predicts accompanying PeV gamma rays.

Contribution

It introduces a hadronic interaction model within our Galaxy to explain IceCube's PeV neutrinos and discusses the potential for gamma-ray observations to determine their origin.

Findings

Hadronic interactions in the Galaxy can produce PeV neutrinos consistent with IceCube data.

PeV gamma rays are expected if neutrinos originate from Galactic sources.

Detection of PeV gamma rays could distinguish Galactic from extragalactic sources.

Abstract

IceCube experiment has detected two neutrinos with energies beween 1-10 PeV. They might have originated from Galactic or extragalactic sources of cosmic rays. In the present work we consider hadronic interactions of the diffuse very high energy cosmic rays with the interstellar matter within our Galaxy to explain the PeV neutrino events detected in IceCube. We also expect PeV gamma ray events along with the PeV neutrino events if the observed PeV neutrinos were produced within our Galaxy in hadronic interactions. PeV gamma rays are unlikely to reach us from sources outside our Galaxy due to pair production with cosmic background radiations. We suggest that in future with simultaneous detections of PeV gamma rays and neutrinos it would be possible to distinguish between Galactic and extragalactic origins of very high energy neutrinos.