Measuring Flavor Ratios of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos

Abstract

We discuss the prospects for next generation neutrino telescopes, such as IceCube, to measure the flavor ratios of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. The expected flavor ratios at the sources are ${\varphi }_{{\nu }_e}:{\varphi }_{{\nu }_{\mu }}:{\varphi }_{{\nu }_{\tau }}=1:2:0$, and neutrino oscillations quickly transform these to $1:1:1$. The flavor ratios can be deduced from the relative rates of showers (${\nu }_e$ charged-current, most ${\nu }_{\tau }$ charged-current, and all flavors neutral-current), muon tracks (${\nu }_{\mu }$ charged-current only), and tau lepton lollipops and double-bangs (${\nu }_{\tau }$ charged-current only). The peak sensitivities for these interactions are at different neutrino energies, but the flavor ratios can be reliably connected by a reasonable measurement of the spectrum shape. Measurement of the astrophysical neutrino flavor ratios tests the assumed production mechanism and also provides a very long baseline test of a number of exotic scenarios, including neutrino decay, CPT violation, and small-$\delta m^2$ oscillations to sterile neutrinos.

Comments: 12 pages, 14 figures; combined published paper and appended erratum