RM3-TH/14-16 A new physics interpretation of the IceCube data

IceCube has recently observed 37 events of TeV–PeV energies. The angular distri-bution, with a strong preference for downgoing directions, the spectrum, and the small muon to shower ratio in the data can not be accommodated assuming standard inter-actions of atmospheric neutrinos. We obtain an excellent fit, however, if a diffuse flux of ultrahigh energy (cosmogenic) neutrinos experiences collisions where only a small fraction of the energy is transferred to the target nucleon. We show that consistent models of TeV gravity or other non-Wilsonian completions of the standard model pro-vide cross sections with these precise features. An increased statistics could clearly distinguish our scenario from the one assumed by IceCube (a diffuse flux of astrophys-ical neutrinos with a ∝ E−2 spectrum) and establish the need for new physics in the interpretation of the data. ar X i