The Delta Resonance in the Neutrino Sky
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Zathul, Arifa Khatee Fang, Ke Halzen, Francis Hooper, Dan |
| author_facet | Zathul, Arifa Khatee Fang, Ke Halzen, Francis Hooper, Dan |
| contents | Recent measurements of the diffuse cosmic neutrino flux by IceCube show evidence for a spectral break at an energy near $E_ν\sim 30$ TeV. In this letter, we suggest that this feature may be due to the $Δ$-baryon resonance in $pγ$ interactions. We show that the measured spectrum, including the observed break, can be naturally accommodated by a flux of protons accelerated with a spectrum $dN_p /dE_p \propto E_p^{-3.1}$ interacting with X-rays of typical energy $E_γ \sim 0.3\,{\rm keV}$. We also point out that the presence of this spectral break significantly reduces the contribution of neutrino sources to the isotropic gamma-ray background, alleviating the longstanding tension between these measurements. In the $Δ$-resonance scenario, the gamma rays accompanying neutrino production cascade down to MeV-GeV energies and contribute at the $\sim 10\%$ level to the isotropic gamma-ray background at $\sim 3$~GeV. If our proposal is realized, it may imply that we have identified the dominant sources that produce the extragalactic cosmic rays. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2606_00249 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The Delta Resonance in the Neutrino Sky Zathul, Arifa Khatee Fang, Ke Halzen, Francis Hooper, Dan High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Recent measurements of the diffuse cosmic neutrino flux by IceCube show evidence for a spectral break at an energy near $E_ν\sim 30$ TeV. In this letter, we suggest that this feature may be due to the $Δ$-baryon resonance in $pγ$ interactions. We show that the measured spectrum, including the observed break, can be naturally accommodated by a flux of protons accelerated with a spectrum $dN_p /dE_p \propto E_p^{-3.1}$ interacting with X-rays of typical energy $E_γ \sim 0.3\,{\rm keV}$. We also point out that the presence of this spectral break significantly reduces the contribution of neutrino sources to the isotropic gamma-ray background, alleviating the longstanding tension between these measurements. In the $Δ$-resonance scenario, the gamma rays accompanying neutrino production cascade down to MeV-GeV energies and contribute at the $\sim 10\%$ level to the isotropic gamma-ray background at $\sim 3$~GeV. If our proposal is realized, it may imply that we have identified the dominant sources that produce the extragalactic cosmic rays. |
| title | The Delta Resonance in the Neutrino Sky |
| topic | High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00249 |