Searching For Superheavy Decaying Particles With Ultra-High-Energy Neutrino Observatories

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Hauptverfasser: Berghaus, Kim V., Hooper, Dan, Simon, Emily R.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Berghaus, Kim V.
Hooper, Dan
Simon, Emily R.
author_facet Berghaus, Kim V.
Hooper, Dan
Simon, Emily R.
contents If there exist unstable but long-lived relics of the early universe, their decays could produce detectable fluxes of gamma rays and neutrinos. In this paper, we point out that the decays of superheavy particles, $m_χ \gtrsim 10^{10} \, \text{GeV}$,would produce an enhanced flux of ultra-high-energy neutrinos through the processes of muon and pion pair production in the resulting electromagnetic cascades. These processes transfer energy from electromagnetic decay products into neutrinos, relaxing the constraints that can be derived from gamma-ray observations, and increasing the sensitivity of high-energy neutrino telescopes to superheavy particle decays. Taking this into account, we derive new constraints on long-lived superheavy relics from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, and from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. We find that IceCube-Gen2, and other next generation neutrino telescopes, will provide unprecedented sensitivity to the decays of superheavy dark matter particles and other long-lived relics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_12238
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Searching For Superheavy Decaying Particles With Ultra-High-Energy Neutrino Observatories
Berghaus, Kim V.
Hooper, Dan
Simon, Emily R.
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
If there exist unstable but long-lived relics of the early universe, their decays could produce detectable fluxes of gamma rays and neutrinos. In this paper, we point out that the decays of superheavy particles, $m_χ \gtrsim 10^{10} \, \text{GeV}$,would produce an enhanced flux of ultra-high-energy neutrinos through the processes of muon and pion pair production in the resulting electromagnetic cascades. These processes transfer energy from electromagnetic decay products into neutrinos, relaxing the constraints that can be derived from gamma-ray observations, and increasing the sensitivity of high-energy neutrino telescopes to superheavy particle decays. Taking this into account, we derive new constraints on long-lived superheavy relics from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, and from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. We find that IceCube-Gen2, and other next generation neutrino telescopes, will provide unprecedented sensitivity to the decays of superheavy dark matter particles and other long-lived relics.
title Searching For Superheavy Decaying Particles With Ultra-High-Energy Neutrino Observatories
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.12238