Characterization of the Three-Flavor Composition of Cosmic Neutrinos with IceCube


Abbasi R., Ackermann M., Adams J., Agarwalla S. K., Aguilar J. A., Ahlers M., ...Daha Fazla

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, cilt.137, sa.8, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 137 Sayı: 8
  • Basım Tarihi: 2026
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1103/vntd-m133
  • Dergi Adı: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Chemical Abstracts Core, Compendex, EMBASE, INSPEC, MathSciNet, MEDLINE, zbMATH, DIALNET
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The flavor composition of cosmic neutrinos probes both the physical properties of their sources and oscillations over energies and distances unreachable by terrestrial experiments. Using 11.4 yr of IceCube data, we analyze the flavor composition of the all-sky neutrino flux from 5 TeV-10 PeV, significantly lowering the analysis threshold from a previous minimum of 35 TeV. The best-fit flavor fractions are f(e); f(mu); f(tau) = 0.30(-0.15)(+0.20) , 0.37(-0.16)(+0.14), 0.33(-0.25)(+0.24) . For the first time, we report that neutrinos of all three flavors are present in the observed cosmic neutrino flux at > 90% confidence level. We infer the flavor composition at their sources, finding good agreement with pion decay while pure neutron decay is disfavored, with posterior probability 2.7 & times; 10(-5) (similar to 4 sigma).