Superheavy Particle Origin of IceCube PeV Neutrino Events

TL;DR

This paper proposes that PeV neutrino events observed by IceCube can be explained by a leptoquark-mediated enhancement in neutrino-quark interactions, fitting the observed energy spectrum and event types.

Contribution

It introduces a leptoquark model with specific parameters to account for IceCube PeV neutrino events, linking particle physics with astrophysical observations.

Findings

Leptoquark with ~0.6 TeV mass explains PeV neutrino events.

Model accounts for the energy distribution of observed showers.

Consistent with the lack of muon-track events above 100 TeV.

Abstract

We interpret the PeV shower events observed by the IceCube collaboration as an s-channel enhancement of neutrino-quark scattering by a leptoquark that couples to the tau-flavor and light quarks. With a leptoquark mass of ~ 0.6 TeV and a steep 1/E^{2.3} neutrino flux, charged-current scattering gives shower events at ~ 1 PeV and neutral-current scattering gives shower events at ~ 0.5 PeV. This mechanism is also consistent with the paucity of muon-track events above 100 TeV.