Constraining the invisible neutrino decay with KM3NeT-ORCA

Several theories of particle physics beyond the Standard Model consider that neutrinos can decay. In this work we assume that the standard mechanism of neutrino oscillations is altered by the decay of the heaviest neutrino mass state into a sterile neutrino and, depending on the model, a scalar or a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics Letters B
Main Authors: P.F. de Salas, S. Pastor, C.A. Ternes, T. Thakore, M. Tórtola
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2018.12.066
https://doaj.org/article/b34003c3f7034dfc8c5c957509c0f7e4
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Summary:Several theories of particle physics beyond the Standard Model consider that neutrinos can decay. In this work we assume that the standard mechanism of neutrino oscillations is altered by the decay of the heaviest neutrino mass state into a sterile neutrino and, depending on the model, a scalar or a Majoron. We study the sensitivity of the forthcoming KM3NeT-ORCA experiment to this scenario and find that it could improve the current bounds coming from oscillation experiments, where three-neutrino oscillations have been considered, by roughly two orders of magnitude. We also study how the presence of this neutrino decay can affect the determination of the atmospheric oscillation parameters sin2⁡θ23 and Δm312, as well as the sensitivity to the neutrino mass ordering. Keywords: Neutrino masses and mixing, Neutrino oscillations, Neutrino decay, Neutrino telescopes