English

Implications of the KM3NeT Ultrahigh-energy Event on Neutrino Self-interactions

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-01-27 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

Neutrino self-interactions (ν\nuSI) mediated by light bosonic particles can produce characteristic spectral dips in astrophysical neutrino fluxes, thereby altering the expected energy spectrum. The high-energy astrophysical neutrino spectrum has been extensively used to probe ν\nuSI models through these distinctive features. The recent detection of the ultrahigh-energy event KM3-230213A presents a new opportunity to explore ν\nuSI phenomenology at extreme energies. In this work, we investigate two implications of this observation, assuming the event originates from a diffuse power-law spectrum. First, we find that ν\nuSI-induced spectral distortions can mildly alleviate the tension between the KM3-230213A detection and the previous non-observation of PeV-scale neutrinos in IceCube data. Second, we derive the strongest constraints on the τ\tau-flavored ν\nuSI coupling strength for mediator masses around 100 MeV. Our analysis shows that neutrino telescopes can surpass existing collider bounds in this mass range. In the near future, IceCube-Gen2 is expected to significantly enhance ν\nuSI sensitivity, including regions relevant to alleviating the Hubble and neutrino mass tensions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.20163,
  title  = {Implications of the KM3NeT Ultrahigh-energy Event on Neutrino Self-interactions},
  author = {Yuxuan He and Jia Liu and Xiao-Ping Wang and Yi-Ming Zhong},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.20163},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

10 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables