Quantum-gravity-induced dual lensing and IceCube neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum-gravity effects like dual lensing could influence the observation of IceCube neutrinos, potentially affecting their directions and timing, and explores implications for background neutrino estimation.

Contribution

It extends previous work on dual redshift to include dual lensing effects in the analysis of IceCube neutrinos, addressing broader observational issues.

Findings

Dual lensing may impact neutrino directionality analysis.

Potential to distinguish early and late neutrino signals.

Implications for background neutrino contribution estimation.

Abstract

Momentum-space curvature, which is expected in some approaches to the quantum-gravity problem, can produce dual redshift, a feature which introduces energy dependence of the travel times of ultrarelativistic particles, and dual lensing, a feature which mainly affects the direction of observation of particles. In our recent arXiv:1605.00496 we explored the possibility that dual redshift might be relevant in the analysis of IceCube neutrinos, obtaining results which are preliminarily encouraging. Here we explore the possibility that also dual lensing might play a role in the analysis of IceCube neutrinos. In doing so we also investigate issues which are of broader interest, such as the possibility of estimating the contribution by background neutrinos and some noteworthy differences between candidate "early neutrinos" and candidate "late neutrinos".