Diffuse neutrinos from extragalactic supernova remnants: Dominating the 100 TeV IceCube flux

TL;DR

This paper investigates the contribution of supernova remnants to the diffuse neutrino flux observed by IceCube, suggesting they dominate up to 100 TeV and influence the spectral shape of the astrophysical neutrino spectrum.

Contribution

It demonstrates that ordinary supernova remnants can produce a neutrino flux comparable to or exceeding that of rarer hypernova remnants up to 150 TeV, shaping the observed spectrum.

Findings

Supernova remnants contribute significantly to the neutrino flux up to 100-150 TeV.

The spectral break around 100 TeV may be due to the transition from supernova remnants to other sources.

Supernova remnants set a baseline for the diffuse neutrino flux, constraining higher energy contributions.

Abstract

IceCube has measured a diffuse astrophysical flux of TeV-PeV neutrinos. The most plausible sources are unique high energy cosmic ray accelerators like hypernova remnants (HNRs) and remnants from gamma ray bursts in star-burst galaxies, which can produce primary cosmic rays with the required energies and abundance. In this case, however, ordinary supernova remnants (SNRs), which are far more abundant than HNRs, produce a comparable or larger neutrino flux in the ranges up to 100-150 TeV energies, implying a spectral break in the IceCube signal around these energies. The SNRs contribution in the diffuse flux up to these hundred TeV energies provides a natural baseline and then constrains the expected PeV flux.