Abstract
The IceCube neutrino spectrum shows a flux which falls of as E −2 for sub PeV energies but there are no neutrino events observed above ∼ 3 PeV. In particular the Glashow resonance expected at 6.3 PeV is not seen. We examine a Planck scale Lorentz violation as a mechanism for explaining the cutoff of observed neutrino energies around a few PeV. By choosing the one free parameter the cutoff in neutrino energy can be chosen to be between 2 and 6.3 PeV. We assume that neutrinos (antineutrinos) have a dispersion relation E 2 = p 2 − (ξ3 /M Pl) p 3, and find that both π + and π − decays are suppressed at neutrino energies of order of few PeV. We find that the μ − decay being a two-neutrino process is enhanced, whereas μ + decay is suppressed. The K + → π 0 e + ν e is also suppressed with a cutoff neutrino energy of same order of magnitude, whereas \( {K}^{-}\to {\pi}^0{e}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_e \) is enhanced. The \( n\to {p}^{+}{e}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_e \) decay is suppressed (while the \( \overline{n}\to {p}^{-}{e}^{+}{\nu}_e \) is enhanced). This means that the \( {\overline{\nu}}_e \) expected from n decay arising from p + γ → Δ → π + n reaction will not be seen. This can explain the lack of Glashow resonance events at IceCube. If no Glashow resonance events are seen in the future then the Lorentz violation can be a viable explanation for the IceCube observations at PeV energies.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
IceCube collaboration, M.G. Aartsen et al., First observation of PeV-energy neutrinos with IceCube, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 (2013) 021103 [arXiv:1304.5356] [INSPIRE].
IceCube collaboration, M.G. Aartsen et al., Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector, Science 342 (2013) 1242856 [arXiv:1311.5238] [INSPIRE].
IceCube collaboration, M.G. Aartsen et al., Observation of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos in Three Years of IceCube Data, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 (2014) 101101 [arXiv:1405.5303] [INSPIRE].
IceCube collaboration, 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2015), The Hague, The Netherlands, July 30-6 Augost 2015 [INSPIRE] and online at http://icrc2015.nl/.
S.L. Glashow, Resonant Scattering of Antineutrinos, Phys. Rev. 118 (1960) 316 [INSPIRE].
M.D. Kistler, T. Stanev and H. Yüksel, Cosmic PeV Neutrinos and the Sources of Ultrahigh Energy Protons, Phys. Rev. D 90 (2014) 123006 [arXiv:1301.1703] [INSPIRE].
L.A. Anchordoqui et al., End of the cosmic neutrino energy spectrum, Phys. Lett. B 739 (2014) 99 [arXiv:1404.0622] [INSPIRE].
J.G. Learned and T.J. Weiler, A Relational Argument for a ∼ P eV Neutrino Energy Cutoff, arXiv:1407.0739 [INSPIRE].
J.S. Diaz, A. Kostelecky and M. Mewes, Testing Relativity with High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos, Phys. Rev. D 89 (2014) 043005 [arXiv:1308.6344] [INSPIRE].
R.C. Myers and M. Pospelov, Ultraviolet modifications of dispersion relations in effective field theory, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 (2003) 211601 [hep-ph/0301124] [INSPIRE].
S. Mohanty and S. Rao, Neutrino processes with power law dispersion relations, Phys. Rev. D 85 (2012) 102005 [arXiv:1112.2981] [INSPIRE].
F.W. Stecker, S.T. Scully, S. Liberati and D. Mattingly, Searching for Traces of Planck-Scale Physics with High Energy Neutrinos, Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 045009 [arXiv:1411.5889] [INSPIRE].
A. Kostelecky and M. Mewes, Neutrinos with Lorentz-violating operators of arbitrary dimension, Phys. Rev. D 85 (2012) 096005 [arXiv:1112.6395] [INSPIRE].
J.S. Diaz, Neutrinos as probes of Lorentz invariance, Adv. High Energy Phys. 2014 (2014) 962410 [arXiv:1406.6838] [INSPIRE].
F.W. Stecker and S.T. Scully, Propagation of Superluminal PeV IceCube Neutrinos: A High Energy Spectral Cutoff or New Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation, Phys. Rev. D 90 (2014) 043012 [arXiv:1404.7025] [INSPIRE].
L. Maccione, S. Liberati and D.M. Mattingly, Violations of Lorentz invariance in the neutrino sector after OPERA, JCAP 03 (2013) 039 [arXiv:1110.0783] [INSPIRE].
V.A. Kostelecky and N. Russell, Data Tables for Lorentz and CPT Violation, Rev. Mod. Phys. 83 (2011) 11 [arXiv:0801.0287] [INSPIRE].
P.A. Bolokhov and M. Pospelov, Classification of dimension 5 Lorentz violating interactions in the standard model, Phys. Rev. D 77 (2008) 025022 [hep-ph/0703291] [INSPIRE].
T.A. Jacobson, S. Liberati, D. Mattingly and F.W. Stecker, New limits on Planck scale Lorentz violation in QED, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 021101 [astro-ph/0309681] [INSPIRE].
T. Jacobson, S. Liberati and D. Mattingly, Lorentz violation at high energy: Concepts, phenomena and astrophysical constraints, Annals Phys. 321 (2006) 150 [astro-ph/0505267] [INSPIRE].
S. Sahu and L.S. Miranda, Some possible sources of IceCube TeV-PeV neutrino events, Eur. Phys. J. C 75 (2015) 273 [arXiv:1408.3664] [INSPIRE].
G.F. Giudice, S. Sibiryakov and A. Strumia, Interpreting OPERA Results on Superluminal Neutrino, Nucl. Phys. B 861 (2012) 1 [arXiv:1109.5682] [INSPIRE].
Particle Data Group collaboration, K.A. Olive et al., Review of Particle Physics, Chin. Phys. C 38 (2014) 090001 [INSPIRE].
J. Bijnens, G. Ecker and J. Gasser, Radiative semileptonic kaon decays, Nucl. Phys. B 396 (1993) 81 [hep-ph/9209261] [INSPIRE].
R. Engel, D. Seckel and T. Stanev, Neutrinos from propagation of ultrahigh-energy protons, Phys. Rev. D 64 (2001) 093010 [astro-ph/0101216] [INSPIRE].
M. Mannarelli, M. Mitra, F.L. Villante and F. Vissani, Non-Standard Neutrino Propagation and Pion Decay, JHEP 01 (2012) 136 [arXiv:1112.0169] [INSPIRE].
Open Access
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
ArXiv ePrint: 1507.03193
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Tomar, G., Mohanty, S. & Pakvasa, S. Lorentz invariance violation and IceCube neutrino events. J. High Energ. Phys. 2015, 22 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2015)022
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2015)022