Neutrino properties from ultra-high energy cosmic neutrinos

Abstract

Neutrino properties can be constrained by the detection of ultra-high energy cosmic neutrinos (UHECNs). By using the updated global fitting results of neutrino mixing parameters, we present predictions on the neutrino flavor ratios at the Earth from three possibly astrophysical sources. Comparing with the latest IceCube data, we find that the normal hierarchy (NH) and inverted hierarchy (IH) cases from the initial ratios $\phi_{\nu_e}^0:\phi_{\nu_{\mu}}^0:\phi_{\nu_{\tau}}^0=$1:2:0 and 0:1:0 are compatible with the data in the standard neutrino oscillation scenario. We also examine the neutrino flavor ratios in a neutrino decay scenario beyond the standard model, and introduce the special case that two mass eigenstates of neutrinos, i.e., $\nu_1$ and $\nu_2$, are degenerated. We find that the IH case and the degenerate NH case from the 1:2:0 and 0:1:0 sources are still permissible with the IceCube data within the $3\sigma$ error range. The general constraints only rely on the neutrino mixing and oscillation framework are also discussed.