Implications of the QCD dynamics and a Super-Glashow astrophysical neutrino flux on the description of ultrahigh energy neutrino data

TL;DR

This paper explores how high-energy QCD dynamics and a hypothetical Super-Glashow neutrino flux influence the interpretation of ultrahigh energy neutrino data from IceCube, affecting flux properties and event rates.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of QCD effects on neutrino absorption and inelasticity, and assesses the impact of a Super-Glashow flux on neutrino observations.

Findings

QCD dynamics significantly affect neutrino absorption probabilities.

Super-Glashow flux could enhance high-energy neutrino event rates.

Energy dependence of inelasticity impacts flux reconstruction.

Abstract

The number of events observed in neutrino telescopes depends on the neutrino fluxes in the Earth, their absorption while crossing the Earth and their interaction in the detector. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the QCD dynamics at high energies on the energy dependence of the average inelasticity and angular dependence of the absorption probability during the neutrino propagation through the Earth, as well in the determination of the properties of the incident astrophysical neutrino flux. Moreover, the number of events at the IceCube and IceCube - Gen2 are estimated considering different scenarios for the QCD dynamics and assuming the presence of a hypothetical Super - Glashow flux, which peaks for energies above the Glashow resonance.