Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube
Abstract
The Glashow resonance describes the resonant formation of a boson during the interaction of a high-energy electron antineutrino with an electron, peaking at an antineutrino energy of 6.3 petaelectronvolts (PeV) in the rest frame of the electron. Whereas this energy scale is out of reach for currently operating and future planned particle accelerators, natural astrophysical phenomena are expected to produce antineutrinos with energies beyond the PeV scale. Here we report the detection by the IceCube neutrino observatory of a cascade of high-energy particles (a particle shower) consistent with being created at the Glashow resonance. A shower with an energy of PeV (determined from Cherenkov radiation in the Antarctic Ice Sheet) was measured. Features consistent with the production of secondary muons in the particle shower indicate the hadronic decay of a resonant boson, confirm that the source is astrophysical and provide improved directional localization. The evidence of the Glashow resonance suggests the presence of electron antineutrinos in the astrophysical flux, while also providing further validation of the standard model of particle physics. Its unique signature indicates a method of distinguishing neutrinos from antineutrinos, thus providing a way to identify astronomical accelerators that produce neutrinos via hadronuclear or photohadronic interactions, with or without strong magnetic fields. As such, knowledge of both the flavour (that is, electron, muon or tau neutrinos) and charge (neutrino or antineutrino) will facilitate the advancement of neutrino astronomy.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2110.15051,
title = {Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube},
author = {IceCube Collaboration and M. G. Aartsen and R. Abbasi and M. Ackermann and J. Adams and J. A. Aguilar and M. Ahlers and M. Ahrens and C. Alispach and N. M. Amin and K. Andeen and T. Anderson and I. Ansseau and G. Anton and C. Argüelles and J. Auffenberg and S. Axani and H. Bagherpour and X. Bai and A. Balagopal V. and A. Barbano and S. W. Barwick and B. Bastian and V. Basu and V. Baum and S. Baur and R. Bay and J. J. Beatty and K. -H. Becker and J. Becker Tjus and S. BenZvi and D. Berley and E. Bernardini and D. Z. Besson and G. Binder and D. Bindig and E. Blaufuss and S. Blot and C. Bohm and S. Böser and O. Botner and J. Böttcher and E. Bourbeau and J. Bourbeau and F. Bradascio and J. Braun and S. Bron and J. Brostean-Kaiser and A. Burgman and J. Buscher and R. S. Busse and M. A. Campana and T. Carver and C. Chen and E. Cheung and D. Chirkin and S. Choi and B. A. Clark and K. Clark and L. Classen and A. Coleman and G. H. Collin and J. M. Conrad and P. Coppin and P. Correa and D. F. Cowen and R. Cross and P. Dave and C. De Clercq and J. J. DeLaunay and H. Dembinski and K. Deoskar and S. De Ridder and A. Desai and P. Desiati and K. D. de Vries and G. de Wasseige and M. de With and T. DeYoung and S. Dharani and A. Diaz and J. C. Díaz-Vélez and H. Dujmovic and M. Dunkman and M. A. DuVernois and E. Dvorak and T. Ehrhardt and P. Eller and R. Engel and P. A. Evenson and S. Fahey and A. Fedynitch and A. R. Fazely and J. Felde and A. T. Fienberg and K. Filimonov and C. Finley and L. Fischer and D. Fox and A. Franckowiak and E. Friedman and A. Fritz and T. K. Gaisser and J. Gallagher and E. Ganster and S. Garrappa and L. Gerhardt and A. Ghadimi and T. Glauch and T. Glüsenkamp and A. Goldschmidt and J. G. Gonzalez and S. Goswami and D. Grant and T. Grégoire and Z. Griffith and S. Griswold and M. Gündüz and C. Haack and A. Hallgren and R. Halliday and L. Halve and F. Halzen and K. Hanson and J. Hardin and A. Haungs and S. Hauser and D. Hebecker and D. Heereman and P. Heix and K. Helbing and R. Hellauer and F. Henningsen and S. Hickford and J. Hignight and C. Hill and G. C. Hill and K. D. Hoffman and R. Hoffmann and T. Hoinka and B. Hokanson-Fasig and K. Hoshina and F. Huang and M. Huber and T. Huber and K. Hultqvist and M. Hünnefeld and R. Hussain and S. In and N. Iovine and A. Ishihara and M. Jansson and G. S. Japaridze and M. Jeong and B. J. P. Jones and F. Jonske and R. Joppe and D. Kang and W. Kang and X. Kang and A. Kappes and D. Kappesser and T. Karg and M. Karl and A. Karle and U. Katz and M. Kauer and M. Kellermann and J. L. Kelley and A. Kheirandish and J. Kim and K. Kin and T. Kintscher and J. Kiryluk and T. Kittler and S. R. Klein and R. Koirala and H. Kolanoski and L. Köpke and C. Kopper and S. Kopper and D. J. Koskinen and P. Koundal and M. Kowalski and K. Krings and G. Krückl and N. Kulacz and N. Kurahashi and A. Kyriacou and C. Lagunas Gualda and J. L. Lanfranchi and M. J. Larson and F. Lauber and J. P. Lazar and K. Leonard and A. Leszczyńska and Y. Li and Q. R. Liu and E. Lohfink and C. J. Lozano Mariscal and L. Lu and F. Lucarelli and A. Ludwig and J. Lünemann and W. Luszczak and Y. Lyu and W. Y. Ma and J. Madsen and G. Maggi and K. B. M. Mahn and Y. Makino and P. Mallik and S. Mancina and I. C. Mariş and R. Maruyama and K. Mase and R. Maunu and F. McNally and K. Meagher and M. Medici and A. Medina and M. Meier and S. Meighen-Berger and J. Merz and T. Meures and J. Micallef and D. Mockler and G. Momenté and T. Montaruli and R. W. Moore and R. Morse and M. Moulai and P. Muth and R. Naab and R. Nagai and U. Naumann and J. Necker and G. Neer and L. V. Nguyen and H. Niederhausen and M. U. Nisa and S. C. Nowicki and D. R. Nygren and A. Obertacke Pollmann and M. Oehler and A. Olivas and A. O'Murchadha and E. O'Sullivan and H. Pandya and D. V. Pankova and N. Park and G. K. Parker and E. N. Paudel and P. Peiffer and C. Pérez de los Heros and S. Philippen and D. Pieloth and S. Pieper and E. Pinat and A. Pizzuto and M. Plum and Y. Popovych and A. Porcelli and M. Prado Rodriguez and P. B. Price and G. T. Przybylski and C. Raab and A. Raissi and M. Rameez and L. Rauch and K. Rawlins and I. C. Rea and A. Rehman and R. Reimann and B. Relethford and M. Relich and M. Renschler and G. Renzi and E. Resconi and S. Reusch and W. Rhode and M. Richman and B. Riedel and S. Robertson and G. Roellinghoff and M. Rongen and C. Rott and T. Ruhe and D. Ryckbosch and D. Rysewyk Cantu and I. Safa and S. E. Sanchez Herrera and A. Sandrock and J. Sandroos and M. Santander and S. Sarkar and S. Sarkar and K. Satalecka and M. Scharf and M. Schaufel and H. Schieler and P. Schlunder and T. Schmidt and A. Schneider and J. Schneider and F. G. Schröder and L. Schumacher and S. Sclafani and D. Seckel and S. Seunarine and S. Shefali and M. Silva and B. Smithers and R. Snihur and J. Soedingrekso and D. Soldin and M. Song and G. M. Spiczak and C. Spiering and J. Stachurska and M. Stamatikos and T. Stanev and R. Stein and J. Stettner and A. Steuer and T. Stezelberger and R. G. Stokstad and N. L. Strotjohann and T. Stürwald and T. Stuttard and G. W. Sullivan and I. Taboada and F. Tenholt and S. Ter-Antonyan and A. Terliuk and S. Tilav and K. Tollefson and L. Tomankova and C. Tönnis and S. Toscano and D. Tosi and A. Trettin and M. Tselengidou and C. F. Tung and A. Turcati and R. Turcotte and C. F. Turley and J. P. Twagirayezu and B. Ty and E. Unger and M. A. Unland Elorrieta and J. Vandenbroucke and D. van Eijk and N. van Eijndhoven and D. Vannerom and J. van Santen and S. Verpoest and M. Vraeghe and C. Walck and A. Wallace and N. Wandkowsky and T. B. Watson and C. Weaver and A. Weindl and M. J. Weiss and J. Weldert and C. Wendt and J. Werthebach and B. J. Whelan and N. Whitehorn and K. Wiebe and C. H. Wiebusch and D. R. Williams and L. Wills and M. Wolf and T. R. Wood and K. Woschnagg and G. Wrede and J. Wulff and X. W. Xu and Y. Xu and J. P. Yanez and S. Yoshida and T. Yuan and Z. Zhang and M. Zöcklein},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.15051},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
This work has been published in Nature and is available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03256-1