Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. The Glashow resonance describes the resonant formation of a W− boson during the interaction of a high-energy electron antineutrino with an electron1, peaking at an antineutrino energy of 6.3 petaelectronvolts (PeV) in the res...
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ftmit:oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/141471 2023-06-11T04:06:17+02:00 Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube 2022-04-01T19:14:14Z application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/141471 en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC 10.1038/S41586-021-03256-1 Nature https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/141471 2021. "Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube." Nature, 591 (7849). Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. arXiv Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2022 ftmit 2023-05-29T07:27:36Z © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. The Glashow resonance describes the resonant formation of a W− boson during the interaction of a high-energy electron antineutrino with an electron1, 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 6.05 ± 0.72 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 W− 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Antarctic The Antarctic |
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English |
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© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. The Glashow resonance describes the resonant formation of a W− boson during the interaction of a high-energy electron antineutrino with an electron1, 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 6.05 ± 0.72 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 W− 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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube |
spellingShingle |
Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube |
title_short |
Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube |
title_full |
Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube |
title_fullStr |
Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube |
title_full_unstemmed |
Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube |
title_sort |
detection of a particle shower at the glashow resonance with icecube |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/141471 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
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Antarctic The Antarctic |
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Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
op_source |
arXiv |
op_relation |
10.1038/S41586-021-03256-1 Nature https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/141471 2021. "Detection of a particle shower at the Glashow resonance with IceCube." Nature, 591 (7849). |
op_rights |
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. |
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