Scrutinizing the cosmogenic origin of the KM3-230213A event: A Multimessenger Perspective

Scrutinizing the cosmogenic origin of the KM3-230213A event: A Multimessenger Perspective | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Scrutinizing the cosmogenic origin of the KM3-230213A event: A Multimessenger Perspective Alessandro Cermenati, Antonio Ambrosone, Roberto Aloisio, Denise Boncioli, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7409725/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The recent detection of the neutrino event KM3-230213A ($\sim$~220 PeV) by the KM3NeT/ARCA telescope—the most energetic ever observed—could represent the long-awaited evidence for a cosmogenic origin, arising from the interaction of an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray with background photons. Its secure confirmation would mark a major advance in high-energy astrophysics. We perform a self-consistent multimessenger transport calculation of protons and their secondary $\gamma$-rays and neutrinos from cosmologically evolving sources, confronting predictions with data from the Pierre Auger Observatory, IceCube, KM3NeT and the Fermi-LAT isotropic $\gamma$-ray background. A steep sub-ankle proton component saturates the diffuse $\gamma$-ray background and is disfavoured, whereas a hard proton spectrum extending beyond $10^{20}$~eV with evolution $\propto (1+z)^3$ reproduces KM3-230213A without violating any limits. This scenario requires a proton fraction $\lesssim 10$% at $3\times 10^{19}$~eV and excludes faster-evolving sources. Joint UHE-neutrino and $\gamma$-ray observations thus sharpen constraints on extragalactic cosmic-ray sources and set targets for AugerPrime and next-generation neutrino telescopes. Physical sciences/Physics/Astronomy and astrophysics/High-energy astrophysics Physical sciences/Physics/Astronomy and astrophysics/Particle astrophysics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7409725","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":522811838,"identity":"ff5e3749-823f-4168-a7a6-40d16d59ed28","order_by":0,"name":"Alessandro Cermenati","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Gran Sasso Science Institute","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Alessandro","middleName":"","lastName":"Cermenati","suffix":""},{"id":522811839,"identity":"d64d81ed-d63d-401a-8293-2a11d8bd5e31","order_by":1,"name":"Antonio Ambrosone","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9942-1029","institution":"Gran Sasso Science Institute","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Antonio","middleName":"","lastName":"Ambrosone","suffix":""},{"id":522811840,"identity":"008104b3-d112-4a2a-8629-b8d4ea3b2aab","order_by":2,"name":"Roberto Aloisio","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Gran Sasso Science Institute","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Roberto","middleName":"","lastName":"Aloisio","suffix":""},{"id":522811841,"identity":"bd567a7d-0c83-4838-8896-e6fb47e7ff01","order_by":3,"name":"Denise Boncioli","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1186-9353","institution":"University of L'Aquila","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Denise","middleName":"","lastName":"Boncioli","suffix":""},{"id":522811842,"identity":"576ba7a5-9063-4edf-b1bd-9660606af4cc","order_by":4,"name":"Carmelo Evoli","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6023-5253","institution":"Gran Sasso Science Institute","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Carmelo","middleName":"","lastName":"Evoli","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-08-19 14:40:38","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7409725/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7409725/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":92565533,"identity":"d78d7ef6-b290-462c-8def-c7693033c562","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-01 06:20:30","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":486113,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"ScrutinizingthecosmogenicoriginoftheKM3230213Aevent.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7409725/v1_covered_8b331e8e-cd7e-487c-bfec-be64cccc890b.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Scrutinizing the cosmogenic origin of the KM3-230213A event: A Multimessenger Perspective","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7409725/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7409725/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"The recent detection of the neutrino event KM3-230213A ($\\sim$~220 PeV) by the KM3NeT/ARCA telescope—the most energetic ever observed—could represent the long-awaited evidence for a cosmogenic origin, arising from the interaction of an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray with background photons. Its secure confirmation would mark a major advance in high-energy astrophysics.\r\nWe perform a self-consistent multimessenger transport calculation of protons and their secondary $\\gamma$-rays and neutrinos from cosmologically evolving sources, confronting predictions with data from the Pierre Auger Observatory, IceCube, KM3NeT and the Fermi-LAT isotropic $\\gamma$-ray background. A steep sub-ankle proton component saturates the diffuse $\\gamma$-ray background and is disfavoured, whereas a hard proton spectrum extending beyond $10^{20}$~eV with evolution $\\propto (1+z)^3$ reproduces KM3-230213A without violating any limits. This scenario requires a proton fraction $\\lesssim 10$\\% at $3\\times 10^{19}$~eV and excludes faster-evolving sources. \r\nJoint UHE-neutrino and $\\gamma$-ray observations thus sharpen constraints on extragalactic cosmic-ray sources and set targets for AugerPrime and next-generation neutrino telescopes.","manuscriptTitle":"Scrutinizing the cosmogenic origin of the KM3-230213A event: A Multimessenger Perspective","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-01 06:12:22","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7409725/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-astronomy","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"natastron","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Astronomy](http://www.nature.com/natastron/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Astronomy","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Research","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"4fe232b8-f462-4fb9-b618-fb7812b1c170","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 1st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":55571831,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Astronomy and astrophysics/High-energy astrophysics"},{"id":55571832,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Astronomy and astrophysics/Particle astrophysics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-10T16:27:28+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-01 06:12:22","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7409725","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7409725","identity":"rs-7409725","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}