Standard Model Explanation of the Ultra-high Energy Neutrino Events at IceCube

Abstract

The recent observation of two PeV events at IceCube, followed by an additional 26 events between 30 - 300 TeV, has generated considerable speculations on its origin, and many exotic New Physics explanations have been invoked. For a reliable interpretation, it is however important to first scrutinize the Standard Model (SM) expectations carefully, including the theoretical uncertainties, mainly due to the parton distribution functions. Assuming a new isotropic cosmic neutrino flux with a simple unbroken power-law spectrum, $\Phi \propto E^{-s}$ for the entire energy range of interest, we find that with $s=1.5$ - 2, the SM neutrino-nucleon interactions are sufficient to explain all the observed events so far, without the need for any beyond the SM explanation. With more statistics, this powerful detector could provide a unique test of the SM up to the PeV scale, and lead to important clues of New Physics.

Comments: 9 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables; expanded version with added discussion on the cross section, event distributions, and spectral index