Possible Interpretations of IceCube High-Energy Neutrino Events

TL;DR

This paper explores various interpretations of IceCube's high-energy neutrino events, including astrophysical sources, long-lived particle decays, and hybrid models, assessing their viability with current data.

Contribution

It introduces a simple Standard Model extension for heavy particle decays and compares multiple scenarios explaining the neutrino spectrum.

Findings

Current data supports all proposed scenarios.

A simple extension of the Standard Model can account for heavy particle decays.

Future exposure estimates could help distinguish between models.

Abstract

We discuss possible interpretations of the 37 high energy neutrino events observed by the IceCube experiment in the South Pole. We examine the possibility to explain the observed neutrino spectrum exclusively by the decays of a heavy long-lived particle of mass in the PeV range. We compare this with the standard scenario, namely, a single power-law spectrum related to neutrinos produced by astrophysical sources and a viable hybrid situation where the spectrum is a product of two components: a power-law and the long-lived particle decays. We present a simple extension of the Standard Model that could account for the heavy particle decays that are needed in order to explain the data. We show that the current data equally supports all above scenarios and try to evaluate the exposure needed in order to falsify them in the future.