Propagation of high-energy neutrinos in a background of ultralight scalar dark matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how interactions between high-energy neutrinos and ultralight scalar dark matter particles can significantly alter neutrino fluxes and flavor ratios observed on Earth, with implications for neutrino astronomy.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed transport model for neutrino propagation through ultralight scalar dark matter, analyzing effects on flux and flavor ratios in extragalactic and galactic contexts.

Findings

Neutrino-dark matter interactions can modify fluxes and flavor ratios.

Results vary for point and diffuse neutrino sources.

Impacts are detectable by instruments like IceCube.

Abstract

If high-energy neutrinos propagate in a background of ultralight scalar field particles of dark matter ($m_\varphi \sim 10^{-23}$eV), neutrino-dark matter interactions can play a role and affect the neutrino flux. In this work we analyse this effect using transport equations that account for the neutrino regeneration as well as absorption, and we consider the neutrino flux propagation in the extragalactic medium and also through the galactic halo of dark matter. We show the results for the final flux to arrive on Earth for different cases of point and diffuse neutrino fluxes. {We conclude that this type of neutrino interactions with ultralight scalar particles as dark matter can yield very different results in the neutrino flux and in the flavor ratios that can be measured in neutrino detectors such as IceCube.