Probing quantum gravity with elastic interactions of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos

The next generation of radio telescopes will be sensitive to low-scale quantum gravity by measuring ultrahigh-energy neutrinos. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time that neutrino-nucleon soft interactions induced by TeV-scale gravity would significantly increase the number of events detected by the IceCube-Gen2 radio array in the EeV regime. However, we show that these experiments cannot measure the total cross section using only the angular and energy information of the neutrino flux, unless assumptions on the underlying inelasticity distribution of neutral interactions are made.

Automated summary

The next generation of radio telescopes will detect low-scale quantum gravity by measuring ultrahigh-energy neutrinos. The study shows that neutrino-nucleon soft interactions induced by TeV-scale gravity will significantly increase the number of events detected by the IceCube-Gen2 radio array in the EeV energy range. However, the total cross section cannot be measured solely using the angular and energy information of the neutrino flux without making assumptions about the underlying inelasticity distribution of neutral interactions.