Overview
- A peer-reviewed JCAP paper from the KM3NeT collaboration models a diffuse population of blazars that could account for the ultra-high-energy neutrino detected on February 13, 2023.
- The event, designated KM3-230213A, carried about 220 PeV, making it the highest-energy neutrino observed to date.
- Researchers used AM3 simulations with physically motivated blazar parameters and varied baryonic loading and proton spectral index to reproduce the observed neutrino output.
- Cross-checks against IceCube non-detections and Fermi’s extragalactic gamma-ray background show the blazar-population scenario remains consistent with multi-messenger constraints.
- No electromagnetic counterpart was found for the event, the detector was only about 10% complete (21 lines) at the time, and comparable events appear extremely rare, underscoring the need for more observations.