Decomposing the Origin of TeV-PeV Emission from the Galactic Plane: Implications of Multi-messenger Observations

High-energy neutrino and $\gamma$-ray emission has been observed from the Galactic plane, which may come from individual sources and/or diffuse cosmic rays. We evaluate the contribution of these two components through the multi-messenger connection between neutrinos and $\gamma$ rays in hadronic interactions. We derive maximum fluxes of neutrino emission from the Galactic plane using $\gamma$-ray catalogs, including 4FGL, HGPS, 3HWC, and 1LHAASO, and measurements of the Galactic diffuse emission by Tibet AS$\gamma$ and LHAASO. We find that depending on model templates, the diffuse emission is brighter than the sum of resolved sources when excluding promising leptonic sources such as pulsars, pulsar wind nebulae, and TeV halos. Our result indicates that the Galactic neutrino emission observed by the IceCube Collaboration may be dominated by the Galactic diffuse emission or unresolved $\gamma$-ray sources. Future observations of neutrino telescopes and air-shower $\gamma$-ray experiments in the Southern hemisphere are needed to accurately disentangle the source and diffuse emission of the Milky Way.Comment: 8+2 pages, 4+1 figures, 0+2 table