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Improved measurements of the TeV-PeV extragalactic neutrino spectrum from joint analyses of IceCube tracks and cascades

R. Abbasi ¹⁶, M. Ackermann ⁶³, J. Adams¹⁷, S. K. Agarwalla ^39,*, J. A. Aguilar ¹⁰, M. Ahlers ²¹, J. M. Alameddine ²², S. Ali ³⁵, N. M. Amin⁴³ et al. (IceCube Collaboration^¶)

N. M. Amin⁴³, K. Andeen ⁴¹, C. Arguelles ¹³, Y. Ashida⁵², S. Athanasiadou⁶³, S. N. Axani ⁴³, R. Babu²³, X. Bai ⁴⁹, J. Baines-Holmes³⁹, A. Balagopal V.^43,39, S. W. Barwick ²⁹, S. Bash²⁶, V. Basu ⁵², R. Bay⁶, J. J. Beatty ^20,19, J. Becker Tjus ^9,†, P. Behrens¹, J. Beise ⁶¹, C. Bellenghi ²⁶, B. Benkel⁶³, S. BenZvi ⁵¹, D. Berley¹⁸, E. Bernardini ^47,‡, D. Z. Besson³⁵, E. Blaufuss ¹⁸, L. Bloom ⁵⁸, S. Blot ⁶³, I. Bodo³⁹, F. Bontempo³⁰, J. Y. Book Motzkin ¹³, C. Boscolo Meneguolo ^47,‡, S. Boser ⁴⁰, O. Botner ⁶¹, J. Bottcher ¹, J. Braun³⁹, B. Brinson ⁴, Z. Brisson-Tsavoussis³², R. T. Burley², D. Butterfield³⁹, M. A. Campana ⁴⁸, K. Carloni ¹³, J. Carpio ^34,33, S. Chattopadhyay^39,*, N. Chau¹⁰, Z. Chen⁵⁵, D. Chirkin ³⁹, S. Choi⁵², B. A. Clark ¹⁸, A. Coleman ⁶¹, P. Coleman¹, G. H. Collin¹⁴, D. A. Coloma Borja ⁴⁷, A. Connolly^20,19, J. M. Conrad ¹⁴, R. Corley⁵², D. F. Cowen ^59,60, C. De Clercq ¹¹, J. J. DeLaunay ⁵⁹, D. Delgado ¹³, T. Delmeulle¹⁰, S. Deng¹, P. Desiati ³⁹, K. D. de Vries ¹¹, G. de Wasseige ³⁶, T. DeYoung ²³, J. C. Diaz-Velez ³⁹, S. DiKerby ²³, M. Dittmer⁴², A. Domi²⁵, L. Draper⁵², L. Dueser¹, D. Durnford ²⁴, K. Dutta⁴⁰, M. A. DuVernois ³⁹, T. Ehrhardt⁴⁰, L. Eidenschink²⁶, A. Eimer ²⁵, P. Eller ²⁶, E. Ellinger⁶², D. Elsasser ²², R. Engel^30,31, H. Erpenbeck ³⁹, W. Esmail⁴², S. Eulig¹³, J. Evans¹⁸, P. A. Evenson⁴³, K. L. Fan¹⁸, K. Fang³⁹, K. Farrag¹⁵, A. R. Fazely ⁵, A. Fedynitch ⁵⁷, N. Feigl⁸, C. Finley ⁵⁴, L. Fischer ⁶³, D. Fox ⁵⁹, A. Franckowiak ⁹, S. Fukami⁶³, P. Furst ¹, J. Gallagher ³⁸, E. Ganster ¹, A. Garcia ¹³, M. Garcia⁴³, G. Garg^39,*, E. Genton ^13,36, L. Gerhardt⁷, A. Ghadimi ⁵⁸, C. Glaser ⁶¹, T. Glusenkamp ⁶¹, J. G. Gonzalez⁴³, S. Goswami^34,33, A. Granados²³, D. Grant¹², S. J. Gray ¹⁸, S. Griffin ³⁹, S. Griswold ⁵¹, K. M. Groth ²¹, D. Guevel ³⁹, C. Gunther ¹, P. Gutjahr ²², C. Ha ⁵³, C. Haack ²⁵, A. Hallgren ⁶¹, L. Halve ¹, F. Halzen ³⁹, L. Hamacher¹, M. Ha Minh²⁶, M. Handt¹, K. Hanson³⁹, J. Hardin¹⁴, A. A. Harnisch²³, P. Hatch³², A. Haungs ³⁰, J. Haussler ¹, K. Helbing ⁶², J. Hellrung ⁹, B. Henke²³, L. Hennig²⁵, F. Henningsen ¹², L. Heuermann¹, R. Hewett¹⁷, N. Heyer ⁶¹, S. Hickford⁶², A. Hidvegi⁵⁴, C. Hill ¹⁵, G. C. Hill², R. Hmaid¹⁵, K. D. Hoffman¹⁸, D. Hooper³⁹, S. Hori ³⁹, K. Hoshina^39,§, M. Hostert ¹³, W. Hou ³⁰, T. Huber ³⁰, K. Hultqvist ⁵⁴, K. Hymon ^22,57, A. Ishihara¹⁵, W. Iwakiri ¹⁵, M. Jacquart²¹, S. Jain ³⁹, O. Janik ²⁵, M. Jansson³⁶, M. Jeong ⁵², M. Jin ¹³, N. Kamp ¹³, D. Kang ³⁰, W. Kang ⁴⁸, X. Kang⁴⁸, A. Kappes ⁴², L. Kardum²², T. Karg ⁶³, M. Karl ²⁶, A. Karle ³⁹, A. Katil²⁴, M. Kauer ³⁹, J. L. Kelley ³⁹, M. Khanal⁵², A. Khatee Zathul ³⁹, A. Kheirandish ^34,33, H. Kimku⁵³, J. Kiryluk ⁵⁵, C. Klein²⁵, S. R. Klein ^7,6, Y. Kobayashi ¹⁵, A. Kochocki ²³, R. Koirala ⁴³, H. Kolanoski ⁸, T. Kontrimas ²⁶, L. Kopke⁴⁰, C. Kopper ²⁵, D. J. Koskinen ²¹, P. Koundal ⁴³, M. Kowalski ^8,63, T. Kozynets²¹, N. Krieger⁹, J. Krishnamoorthi ^39,*, T. Krishnan ¹³, K. Kruiswijk ³⁶, E. Krupczak²³, A. Kumar ⁶³, E. Kun⁹, N. Kurahashi ⁴⁸, N. Lad ⁶³, C. Lagunas Gualda ²⁶, L. Lallement Arnaud¹⁰, M. Lamoureux ³⁶, M. J. Larson ¹⁸, F. Lauber ⁶², J. P. Lazar ³⁶, K. Leonard DeHolton ⁶⁰, A. Leszczynska ⁴³, J. Liao ⁴, C. Lin⁴³, Y. T. Liu ⁶⁰, M. Liubarska²⁴, C. Love⁴⁸, L. Lu ³⁹, F. Lucarelli ²⁷, W. Luszczak ^20,19, Y. Lyu ^6,7, J. Madsen ³⁹, E. Magnus ¹¹, Y. Makino³⁹, E. Manao ²⁶, S. Mancina ^47,∥, A. Mand ³⁹, I. C. Maris ¹⁰, S. Marka ⁴⁵, Z. Marka ⁴⁵, L. Marten¹, I. Martinez-Soler ¹³, R. Maruyama ⁴⁴, J. Mauro ³⁶, F. Mayhew ²³, F. McNally ³⁷, J. V. Mead²¹, K. Meagher ³⁹, S. Mechbal⁶³, A. Medina²⁰, M. Meier ¹⁵, Y. Merckx¹¹, L. Merten ⁹, J. Mitchell⁵, L. Molchany⁴⁹, T. Montaruli ²⁷, R. W. Moore ²⁴, Y. Morii¹⁵, A. Mosbrugger²⁵, M. Moulai ³⁹, D. Mousadi⁶³, E. Moyaux³⁶, T. Mukherjee ³⁰, R. Naab ⁶³, M. Nakos³⁹, U. Naumann⁶², J. Necker ⁶³, L. Neste ⁵⁴, M. Neumann⁴², H. Niederhausen ²³, M. U. Nisa ²³, K. Noda ¹⁵, A. Noell¹, A. Novikov⁴³, A. Obertacke Pollmann ¹⁵, V. O’Dell ³⁹, A. Olivas¹⁸, R. Orsoe²⁶, J. Osborn³⁹, E. O’Sullivan ⁶¹, V. Palusova⁴⁰, H. Pandya ⁴³, A. Parenti¹⁰, N. Park ³², V. Parrish²³, E. N. Paudel ⁵⁸, L. Paul ⁴⁹, C. Perez de los Heros ⁶¹, T. Pernice⁶³, J. Peterson³⁹, M. Plum ⁴⁹, A. Ponten⁶¹, V. Poojyam⁵⁸, Y. Popovych⁴⁰, M. Prado Rodriguez³⁹, B. Pries ²³, R. Procter-Murphy¹⁸, G. T. Przybylski⁷, L. Pyras ⁵², C. Raab ³⁶, J. Rack-Helleis⁴⁰, N. Rad ⁶³, M. Ravn⁶¹, K. Rawlins³, Z. Rechav³⁹, A. Rehman ⁴³, I. Reistroffer⁴⁹, E. Resconi ²⁶, S. Reusch⁶³, C. D. Rho ⁵⁶, W. Rhode ²², L. Ricca ³⁶, B. Riedel ³⁹, A. Rifaie⁶², E. J. Roberts², S. Robertson^6,7, M. Rongen ²⁵, A. Rosted ¹⁵, C. Rott ⁵², T. Ruhe ²², L. Ruohan²⁶, D. Ryckbosch²⁸, J. Saffer ³¹, D. Salazar-Gallegos ²³, P. Sampathkumar³⁰, A. Sandrock ⁶², G. Sanger-Johnson ²³, M. Santander ⁵⁸, S. Sarkar ⁴⁶, J. Savelberg¹, M. Scarnera³⁶, P. Schaile²⁶, M. Schaufel¹, H. Schieler ³⁰, S. Schindler ²⁵, L. Schlickmann ⁴⁰, B. Schluter⁴², F. Schluter ¹⁰, N. Schmeisser⁶², T. Schmidt¹⁸, F. G. Schroder ^43,30, L. Schumacher ²⁵, S. Schwirn¹, S. Sclafani ¹⁸, D. Seckel⁴³, L. Seen ³⁹, M. Seikh ³⁵, S. Seunarine ⁵⁰, P. A. Sevle Myhr ³⁶, R. Shah ⁴⁸, S. Shefali³¹, N. Shimizu ¹⁵, B. Skrzypek ⁶, R. Snihur³⁹, J. Soedingrekso²², A. Sogaard²¹, D. Soldin ⁵², P. Soldin ¹, G. Sommani ⁹, C. Spannfellner²⁶, G. M. Spiczak ⁵⁰, C. Spiering ⁶³, J. Stachurska ²⁸, M. Stamatikos²⁰, T. Stanev⁴³, T. Stezelberger ⁷, T. Sturwald⁶², T. Stuttard ²¹, G. W. Sullivan ¹⁸, I. Taboada ⁴, S. Ter-Antonyan ⁵, A. Terliuk²⁶, A. Thakuri⁴⁹, M. Thiesmeyer ³⁹, W. G. Thompson ¹³, J. Thwaites ³⁹, S. Tilav⁴³, K. Tollefson ²³, S. Toscano ¹⁰, D. Tosi³⁹, A. Trettin⁶³, A. K. Upadhyay ^39,*, K. Upshaw⁵, A. Vaidyanathan⁴¹, N. Valtonen-Mattila ^9,61, J. Valverde ⁴¹, J. Vandenbroucke ³⁹, T. Van Eeden⁶³, N. van Eijndhoven ¹¹, L. Van Rootselaar²², J. van Santen ⁶³, J. Vara⁴², F. Varsi³¹, M. Venugopal³⁰, M. Vereecken³⁶, S. Vergara Carrasco¹⁷, S. Verpoest ⁴³, D. Veske⁴⁵, A. Vijai¹⁸, J. Villarreal ¹⁴, C. Walck⁵⁴, A. Wang ⁴, E. H. S. Warrick ⁵⁸, C. Weaver ²³, P. Weigel¹⁴, A. Weindl³⁰, J. Weldert⁴⁰, A. Y. Wen ¹³, C. Wendt ³⁹, J. Werthebach²², M. Weyrauch³⁰, N. Whitehorn ²³, C. H. Wiebusch ¹, D. R. Williams⁵⁸, L. Witthaus ²², M. Wolf ²⁶, G. Wrede²⁵, X. W. Xu⁵, J. P. Yanez ²⁴, Y. Yao ³⁹, E. Yildizci³⁹, S. Yoshida ¹⁵, R. Young³⁵, F. Yu ¹³, S. Yu ⁵², T. Yuan ³⁹, A. Zegarelli ⁹, S. Zhang ²³, Z. Zhang⁵⁵, P. Zhelnin ¹³, and P. Zilberman³⁹ (IceCube Collaboration^¶)

¹III. Physikalisches Institut, RWTH Aachen University, D-52056 Aachen, Germany
²Department of Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, 5005, Australia
³Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Dr., Anchorage, Alaska 99508, USA
⁴School of Physics and Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA
⁵Department of Physics, Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70813, USA
⁶Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
⁷Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
⁸Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, D-12489 Berlin, Germany
⁹Fakultät für Physik and Astronomie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany
¹⁰Université Libre de Bruxelles, Science Faculty CP230, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
¹¹Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Dienst ELEM, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
¹²Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada
¹³Department of Physics and Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
¹⁴Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
¹⁵Department of Physics and The International Center for Hadron Astrophysics, Chiba University, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
¹⁶Department of Physics, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60660, USA
¹⁷Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
¹⁸Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
¹⁹Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
²⁰Department of Physics and Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
²¹Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
²²Department of Physics, TU Dortmund University, D-44221 Dortmund, Germany
²³Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
²⁴Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E1, Canada
²⁵Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, D-91058 Erlangen, Germany
²⁶Physik-department, Technische Universität München, D-85748 Garching, Germany
²⁷Département de physique nucléaire et corpusculaire, Université de Genève, CH-1211 Genève, Switzerland
²⁸Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Gent, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
²⁹Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA
³⁰Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Astroparticle Physics, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
³¹Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Experimental Particle Physics, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
³²Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
³³Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154, USA
³⁴Nevada Center for Astrophysics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154, USA
³⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA
³⁶Centre for Cosmology, Particle Physics and Phenomenology - CP3, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
³⁷Department of Physics, Mercer University, Macon, Georgia 31207-0001, USA
³⁸Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
³⁹Department of Physics and Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
⁴⁰Institute of Physics, University of Mainz, Staudinger Weg 7, D-55099 Mainz, Germany
⁴¹Department of Physics, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA
⁴²Institut für Kernphysik, Universität Münster, D-48149 Münster, Germany
⁴³Bartol Research Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA
⁴⁴Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
⁴⁵Columbia Astrophysics and Nevis Laboratories, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
⁴⁶Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
⁴⁷Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia Galileo Galilei, Università Degli Studi di Padova, I-35122 Padova PD, Italy
⁴⁸Department of Physics, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
⁴⁹Physics Department, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701, USA
⁵⁰Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, River Falls, Wisconsin 54022, USA
⁵¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
⁵²Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA
⁵³Department of Physics, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Republic of Korea
⁵⁴Oskar Klein Centre and Department of Physics, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
⁵⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3800, USA
⁵⁶Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
⁵⁷Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan
⁵⁸Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA
⁵⁹Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
⁶⁰Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
⁶¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden
⁶²Department of Physics, University of Wuppertal, D-42119 Wuppertal, Germany
⁶³Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Platanenallee 6, D-15738 Zeuthen, Germany

^*Also at Institute of Physics, Sachivalaya Marg, Sainik School Post, Bhubaneswar 751005, India.
^†Also at Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
^‡Also at INFN Padova, I-35131 Padova, Italy.
^§Also at Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan.
^∥Also at INFN Padova, I-35131 Padova, Italy.
^¶Contact author: analysis@icecube.wisc.edu

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 062002 – Published 26 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4n6v-r7n4

Abstract

The IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory has discovered the presence of a diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux at energies of TeV and beyond using neutrino induced muon tracks and cascade events from neutrino interactions. We present two analyses sensitive to neutrino events in the energy range 1 TeV to 10 PeV, using more than 10 years of IceCube data. Both analyses consistently reject a neutrino spectrum following a single power-law with a significance of $> 4 σ$ in favor of a broken power law. We describe the methods implemented in the two analyses, the spectral constraints obtained, and the validation of the robustness of the results. Additionally, we report the detection of a muon neutrino in the medium energy starting events sample, or MESE, with an energy of ${11.4}_{- 2.53}^{+ 2.46} PeV$ , the highest energy neutrino observed by IceCube to date. The results presented here show insights into the spectral shape of astrophysical neutrinos, which has important implications for inferring their production processes in a multimessenger picture.

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

synopsis

Neutrinos Make a Break in the Ice

Published 26 March, 2026

The IceCube observatory at the South Pole has found evidence for a break in the spectrum of cosmic neutrinos, with theoretical implications for their generation.

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Physical Review D

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Improved measurements of the TeV-PeV extragalactic neutrino spectrum from joint analyses of IceCube tracks and cascades

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Neutrinos Make a Break in the Ice

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Evidence for a Spectral Break or Curvature in the Spectrum of Astrophysical Neutrinos from 5 TeV to 10 PeV

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