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  • Open Access

Impact of coherent scattering on relic neutrinos boosted by cosmic rays

Jiajie Zhang1,*, Alexander Sandrock2,†, Jiajun Liao1,‡, and Baobiao Yue2,§

  • *Contact author: zhangjj253@mail2.sysu.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: asandrock@uni-wuppertal.de
  • ‡Contact author: liaojiajun@mail.sysu.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: bayue@uni-wuppertal.de
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 043028 – Published 17 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/188d-zhcq

Abstract

Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR) scattering off the cosmic relic neutrino background have recently gained renewed interest in the literature. Current data suggest that (UHECR) are predominantly made of heavy nuclei. Similar to the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) observed at low-energy neutrino experiments, the cross section of heavy nucleus scattering off relic neutrinos will be coherently enhanced since the energy of relic neutrinos can reach ∼O(10)  MeV in the rest frame of the UHECR. We calculate the diffuse flux of relic neutrinos boosted by UHECR after taking into account the contributions from both coherent and incoherent scatterings. Using current data from IceCube and Pierre Auger Observatory, we place constraints on the overdensity of relic neutrinos down to ∼108. Since the flux of boosted relic neutrinos peaks at an energy of ∼200  PeV, we also entertain the possibility to explain the recently observed KM3NeT event with boosted relic neutrinos from UHECR.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 043028– Published 17 February, 2026
  • Received 27 May 2025
  • Accepted 22 January 2026
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