Cosmic-Ray Neutrinos from the Decay of Long-Lived Particle and the Recent IceCube Result

Abstract

Motivated by the recent IceCube result, we study high energy cosmic-ray neutrino flux from the decay of a long-lived particle. Because neutrinos are so transparent, high energy neutrinos produced in the past may also contribute to the present neutrino flux. We point out that the PeV neutrino events observed by IceCube may originate in the decay of a particle much heavier than PeV if its lifetime is shorter than the present cosmic time. It is shown that the mass of the particle responsible for the IceCube event can be as large as $\sim 10^{10}\ {\rm GeV}$. We also discuss several possibilities to acquire information about the lifetime of the long-lived particle.