Constraining the invisible neutrino decay with KM3NeT-ORCA

• 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: Physics; QC1-999; Orca
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2018.12.066; https://doaj.org/article/b34003c3f7034dfc8c5c957509c0f7e4

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