Inferring astrophysical neutrino sources from the Glashow resonance

Abstract

We infer the ultrahigh energy neutrino source by using the Glashow resonance candidate event recently identified by the IceCube Observatory. For the calculation of the cross section for the Glashow resonance, we incorporate both the atomic Doppler broadening effect and initial state radiation $\overline{\nu}^{}_{e} e^- \to W^- \gamma$, which correct the original cross section considerably. Using available experimental information, we have set a generic constraint on the $\overline{\nu}^{}_{e}$ fraction of astrophysical neutrinos, which excludes the $\mu$-damped ${\rm p}\gamma$ source around $2\sigma$ confidence level under the assumption that neutrino production is dominated by the $\Delta$-resonance. While a weak preference has been found for the pp source, next-generation measurements will be able to distinguish between ideal pp and p$\gamma$ sources with a high significance assuming an optimistic single power-law neutrino spectrum. The inclusion of multi-pion production at very high energies for the neutrino source can weaken the discrimination power. In this case additional multimessenger information is needed to distinguish between pp and p$\gamma$ sources.