@article{88853e7ed62d47afb4c16bf9c2acb0eb,
title = "Measurements using the inelasticity distribution of multi-TeV neutrino interactions in IceCube",
abstract = "Inelasticity, the fraction of a neutrino's energy transferred to hadrons, is a quantity of interest in the study of astrophysical and atmospheric neutrino interactions at multi-TeV energies with IceCube. In this work, a sample of contained neutrino interactions in IceCube is obtained from five years of data and classified as 2650 tracks and 965 cascades. Tracks arise predominantly from charged-current νμ interactions, and we demonstrate that we can reconstruct their energy and inelasticity. The inelasticity distribution is found to be consistent with the calculation of Cooper-Sarkar et al. across the energy range from ∼1 to ∼100 TeV. Along with cascades from neutrinos of all flavors, we also perform a fit over the energy, zenith angle, and inelasticity distribution to characterize the flux of astrophysical and atmospheric neutrinos. The energy spectrum of diffuse astrophysical neutrinos is described well by a power law in both track and cascade samples, and a best-fit index γ=2.62±0.07 is found in the energy range from 3.5 TeV to 2.6 PeV. Limits are set on the astrophysical flavor composition and are compatible with a ratio of (13{\^a}¶13{\^a}¶13){\^a}{\v S}•. Exploiting the distinct inelasticity distribution of νμ and {\=ν}μ interactions, the atmospheric νμ to {\=ν}μ flux ratio in the energy range from 770 GeV to 21 TeV is found to be 0.77-0.25+0.44 times the calculation by Honda et al. Lastly, the inelasticity distribution is also sensitive to neutrino charged-current charm production. The data are consistent with a leading-order calculation, with zero charm production excluded at 91% confidence level. Future analyses of inelasticity distributions may probe new physics that affects neutrino interactions both in and beyond the Standard Model.",
author = "{(IceCube Collaboration)} and Aartsen, {M. G.} and M. Ackermann and J. Adams and Aguilar, {J. A.} and M. Ahlers and M. Ahrens and {Al Samarai}, I. and D. Altmann and K. Andeen and T. Anderson and I. Ansseau and G. Anton and C. Arg{\"u}elles and J. Auffenberg and S. Axani and P. Backes and H. Bagherpour and X. Bai and A. Barbano and Barron, {J. P.} and Barwick, {S. W.} and V. Baum and R. Bay and Beatty, {J. J.} and {Becker Tjus}, J. and Becker, {K. H.} and S. Benzvi and D. Berley and E. Bernardini and Besson, {D. Z.} and G. Binder and D. Bindig and E. Blaufuss and S. Blot and C. Bohm and M. B{\"o}rner and F. Bos and S. B{\"o}ser and O. Botner and E. Bourbeau and J. Bourbeau and F. Bradascio and J. Braun and M. Brenzke and Bretz, {H. P.} and S. Bron and J. Brostean-Kaiser and A. Burgman and Busse, {R. S.} and Cowen, {D. F.}",
note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge the support from the following agencies: U.S. National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, U.S. National Science Foundation-Physics Division, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Center for High Throughput Computing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Open Science Grid, Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, U.S. Department of Energy-National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Particle Astrophysics Research Computing Center at the University of Maryland, Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research at Michigan State University, and Astroparticle Physics Computational Facility at Marquette University (U.S. A.); Funds for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS and FWO), FWO Odysseus and Big Science programs, and Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (Belspo) (Belgium); Bundesministerium f{\"u}r Bildung und Forschung, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics, Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, and High Performance Computing cluster of the RWTH Aachen (Germany); Swedish Research Council, Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing, and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (Sweden); Australian Research Council; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Calcul Qu{\'e}bec, Compute Ontario, Canada Foundation for Innovation, WestGrid, and Compute Canada(Canada); Villum Fonden and Danish National Research Foundation (Denmark); Marsden Fund (New Zealand); Japan Society for Promotion of Science and Institute for Global Prominent Research of Chiba University (Japan); National Research Foundation of Korea; and Swiss National Science Foundation. The IceCube Collaboration designed, constructed, and now operates the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Data processing and calibration, Monte Carlo simulations of the detector and of theoretical models, and data analyses were performed by a large number of collaboration members, who also discussed and approved the scientific results presented here. The main authors of this manuscript were Gary Binder and Spencer Klein. It was reviewed by the entire collaboration before publication, and all authors approved the final version of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP.",
year = "2019",
month = feb,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevD.99.032004",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "99",
journal = "Physical Review D",
issn = "2470-0010",
publisher = "American Physical Society",
number = "3",
}